TWO Russian soldiers are to seek political asylum here after deserting their army unit in Chechnya last month. They arrived in Ireland at the weekend after a marathon journey across Europe.
The two 25 year olds spent almost three weeks on the run, much of it hidden in containers on trucks. They did not know what country they had ended up in until they asked passers by after jumping off a truck about 10 miles from Galway on Saturday.
Mr Mikhail Udaltsov from Ryazan and Mr Ivan Solovei from Krasnodar, both single men, then got a lift to Galway city, went to the gardai, and told them they were from Russia and wanted political asylum. The two were last night in a guesthouse in Galway city, where they are being looked after by the Red Cross.
Mr Udaltsov, who has fluent English, told reporters that they had fled the Russian Federation army because poorly trained officers were putting their lives in danger in Chechnya.
"It was a nightmare there. The officers were stupid, it was not normal war. Sometimes they say you can shoot, sometimes not. We just wanted to stop this war."
They fled their army base in Chechnya on March 25th and made their way across Russia to the Baltic Sea port of Kaliningrad by hitchhiking and by train, arriving there on April 5th. They paid $300 each to a Russian trucker to take them out of the country.
"We hid in the trailer. We had food for five days - he told us it would be a long journey and he promised to take us abroad. We did not care what country we went to, we just wanted to be safe."
They have no idea what mute they took or what countries they passed through on their way to Ireland. A 12 hour journey by sea to another port was followed by four days on the road, still hidden in the back of the truck, until their driver told them they must get another truck to take them from there.
They immediately hid in a second truck which carried them for another few days, first by land and then by sea.
Mr Udaltsov estimated that after arriving in port in Ireland on Saturday they had driven for about half an hour when the truck stopped. They jumped out and only then found out where they had been taken.
According to Mr Udaltsov, if they were forced to return to Russia they would probably be sentenced to three years in prison for desertion. If it was their second offence, they would be shot.
They knew little about Ireland - "U2, the Cranberries, Guinness beer and the football teams of Ireland, that's all" - but so far found it to be a "very quiet, beautiful place, and the people are really friendly."
Gardai in Galway put them in touch with the Red Cross.
Today they will meet officials of the Western Health Board and the Department of Social Welfare. Contacts will also be made with the Department of Foreign Affairs to begin processing their asylum applications.