Georgia’s third President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is wanted in his homeland, says that he will come back to Georgia in several months to ‘end the leadership’ of the Georgian Dream government.
Saakashvili has told Mtavari Arkhi that he is holding consultations with politicians and other citizens of Georgia regarding the arrival.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky restored the Ukrainian citizenship of Saakashvili at the end of May 2019, which had been revoked by ex-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Read more about Saakashvili here:
- Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko appointed Saakashvili as the Odessa Governor in May 2015, but in November 2016 the Georgian ex-President quit the post, accusing Poroshenko of corruption.
- Saakashvili, who served as Georgia’s third president from 2004 to 2007 and again from 2008 to 2013, announced his resignation as Odessa governor at a special press conference on November 7, 2016.
- Saakashvili then said despite his resignation, he would continue his fight against corruption in Ukraine along with "young and honest forces”.
- In 2014 Saakashvili was officially charged for his role in several crimes in Georgia however by the time his case went through court he was already in Ukraine.
- Saakashvili is accused of the violent dispersal of anti-government mass protests on November 7, 2007; unlawful raiding of Imedi television company by riot police and the illegal take-over of property owned by late media tycoon Badri (Arkadi) Patarkatsishvili.
- Prior to his appointment as the Governor of Odessa, Saakashvili received Ukrainian citizenship.
- Receiving Ukrainian citizenship meant Saakashvili’s Georgian citizenship was automatically revoked.
- In July 2017 Poroshenko issued a decree to annul Ukrainian citizenship for Saakashvili and since then the former president had had no citizenship (until 2019).