Ex-president Saakashvili plans to open community centre in USA

Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili is going to create a community education facility in Washington DC.

Saakashvili announced his plans while speaking on a Ukrainian television show in Kiev.

"I am creating a Reforms Center in Washington where we share our experience. This will also be an educational center,” he said.

"We are going to bring students in, including Georgians. At this stage we are negotiating with several Universities in order to generalize our experience in any way.”

The Reforms Centre is believed to be a place where citizens could share their experiences of living in a country going through the reform process.

Saakashvili said he was thinking about opening a similar center in Kiev and noted the future of the region was being decided here and now.

"The fate of our region is not so much being decided in Tunisia or Nigeria, where the local Government has invited me to give lectures, but in Ukraine. Ukraine decides not only its fate, but the fate of Georgia, Moldova and even Russia,” Saakashvili added.

He also stressed that Ukraine had vast potential in terms of reforms because it had a "very educated” young generation.

"However, there are other dangers as well. For instance I get calls even here, in Kiev, and get asked to arrange jobs for them because they know I have a lot of acquaintances in Ukraine,” Saakashvili said.

"Of course there is such a wave here too, but on the other hand, there is a great new wave that does not want to live according to the old rules,” Saakashvili said.

Georgia’s ex-President is continuing to live and work abroad and is still wanted by the Georgian Prosecution to be questioned as a witness in relation to numerous criminal cases.

Deputy Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze said the investigation would continue without Saakashvili, as he did not fulfill his civic duty and did not appear to be interrogated, which was defined in the Georgian Constitution and law.