Ex-Leader, Now a Man Without a Country, Surfaces in Ukraine
- 7 years ago
Ex-Leader, Now a Man Without a Country, Surfaces in Ukraine
10, 2017
MOSCOW — Mikheil Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia, finds himself in an unusual position for a former head of state: He is stateless, and spent Sunday trying to enter a country
that does not want him, first by train, then by bus and finally on foot with a crowd of supporters who forced open the border into Ukraine.
Mr. Saakashvili, who was president of Georgia until 2013, acquired Ukrainian citizenship in 2015 but was stripped of
that in July after a bitter falling out with his former ally, President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine.
The apparent breakthrough came on Sunday evening when a throng of supporters forced their way past Ukrainian border guards
and entered Ukraine at a border crossing between Medyka, Poland, and Shehyni.
Mr. Saakashvili left the country but vowed to return,
and on Sunday he set out to do so from Poland, accompanied by a gaggle of journalists and supporters from Ukraine, including former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko.
Sunday’s meandering journey through Poland was not the first time Mr. Saakashvili has wandered in a foreign land — in 2014, he roamed the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as he plotted a political comeback —
but this time the stakes are high, as his homeland, Georgia, has requested his extradition.
His return to Ukraine could sharply raise political temperatures at a time when President Poroshenko is struggling with a Russian-backed armed rebellion in the eastern part of the country
and mounting criticism from political opponents that, like his ousted pro-Russian predecessor, Viktor F. Yanukovych, he tolerates and benefits from rampant corruption.
10, 2017
MOSCOW — Mikheil Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia, finds himself in an unusual position for a former head of state: He is stateless, and spent Sunday trying to enter a country
that does not want him, first by train, then by bus and finally on foot with a crowd of supporters who forced open the border into Ukraine.
Mr. Saakashvili, who was president of Georgia until 2013, acquired Ukrainian citizenship in 2015 but was stripped of
that in July after a bitter falling out with his former ally, President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine.
The apparent breakthrough came on Sunday evening when a throng of supporters forced their way past Ukrainian border guards
and entered Ukraine at a border crossing between Medyka, Poland, and Shehyni.
Mr. Saakashvili left the country but vowed to return,
and on Sunday he set out to do so from Poland, accompanied by a gaggle of journalists and supporters from Ukraine, including former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko.
Sunday’s meandering journey through Poland was not the first time Mr. Saakashvili has wandered in a foreign land — in 2014, he roamed the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as he plotted a political comeback —
but this time the stakes are high, as his homeland, Georgia, has requested his extradition.
His return to Ukraine could sharply raise political temperatures at a time when President Poroshenko is struggling with a Russian-backed armed rebellion in the eastern part of the country
and mounting criticism from political opponents that, like his ousted pro-Russian predecessor, Viktor F. Yanukovych, he tolerates and benefits from rampant corruption.