Georgian ex-President Saakashvili may chair executive committee of Ukraine’s council for reforms

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will be appointed as the secretary of the executive committee of Ukraine’s National Council for Reforms, Ukrainian media outlet Censor.net reported earlier today. 

Saakashvili said on April 22 that he had been offered the post of vice PM of Ukraine for reforms, which caused dissatisfaction in Georgia. 

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia said on April 24 that the possible appointment of Saakashvili as vice PM for reforms in Ukraine by a strategic partner state was ‘absolutely unacceptable.’ 

President Salome Zurabishvili stated the possible appointment of Saakashvili, to any post in Ukraine, ‘is both incomprehensible and unacceptable.’ 

The Ukrainian media reported following the statements of Georgian top officials that Saakashvili’s candidacy ‘was blocked’ for the vice PM’s post. 

• Saakashvili served as Georgia’s third president from 2004 to 2007 and again from 2008 to 2013.
• He 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 takeover of property owned by late media tycoon Badri (Arkadi) Patarkatsishvili.
• Georgia has several times requested Saakashvili’s extradition from Ukraine.