Ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Aug. 1 that President Petro Poroshenko had stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship in order to get rid of a major political rival.
Saakashvili also called Poroshenko a coward and announced “mobilization” of his supporters in autumn.
Saakashvili, who learned about losing his citizenship on a trip to the United States, spoke to the Ukrainian media via Skype from New York on Aug 1.
His main point was that Poroshenko proved by this unexpected blow that he really feared him.
“By stripping me of the citizenship he (Poroshenko) recognized that I am his main problem,” Saakashvili said, comparing Poroshenko with the ousted ex-President Viktor Yanukovych who imprisoned his main political rival Yulia Tymoshenko in 2011.
“If I had no support then why would they take away my citizenship when I wasn’t in Kyiv?” he added. “Poroshenko recognized me as a strong opponent.”
Saakashvili also called on Poroshenko not to be a coward and allow him to return to Ukraine to prove in court he did nothing wrong.
Poroshenko suspended Saakashvili’s citizenship on July 27 claiming that Saakashvili had lied on his citizenship application in 2015.
Poroshenko is yet to comment on Saakashvili’s loss of citizenship.
The president urgently granted Saakashvili, his one-time college classmate, the Ukrainian citizenship in May 2015 as he appointed the ex-president of Georgia the governor of Odesa Oblast.
But in November 2016 Saakashvili quit the post, accusing Poroshenko and his inner circle of massive corruption and lack of reform efforts. Since then, he’s been in opposition to the president and started his own party.
The Presidential Administration has claimed that Saakashvili had given incorrect information when he applied for citizenship in 2015 but refused to officially elaborate which information was incorrect. The Presidential Administration has made the decree on Saakashvili’s loss of citizenship secret, which some lawyers believe to be illegal.
Poroshenko Bloc lawmaker Volodymyr Aryev has published what he claims to be Saakashvili’s citizenship application, in which he said he was not under investigation in other countries, while in fact he was being investigated in Georgia.
Saakashvili says his signature in the alleged application was forged and that the cases against him in Georgia have been recognized by Ukraine as political.
Saakashvili, who is now stateless since the Georgian authorities took away his Georgian citizenship in late 2015, technically can’t return to Ukraine from the U.S., where he stays now.
He said he has both work and tourist U.S. visas, but has no plans to apply for citizenship in U.S. or any country. Instead, he said he would fight for his right to return to Ukraine.
Saakashvili said he has no ambitions to become the president or the prime minister of Ukraine but wants to bring the change to “the whole political system” in Ukraine through his party, Movement of New Forces.
“We are planning mobilization in autumn, we are very actively preparing to it now. We have started unification of the democratic forces,” he said, adding that he would publicly announce when exactly he returns to Ukraine.
