Suddenly notorious for a scathing first-person account of the war in Ukraine published online, Russian paratrooper Pavel Filatiev arrived in France seeking political asylum Sunday after quitting his country following a fifteen year prison sentence for "slander." "I realised that I wouldn't get anywhere here and my lawyers couldn't do anything for me in Russia," Filatiev told AFP in the asylum seekers' waiting area at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. SOUNDBITES