Saakashvili stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship

Mikheil Saakashvili, the former head of the Odesa
Regional Administration and former president of Georgia, was informed on July
26 by the State Migration Service that he is being stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship.
The formal reason is that he was found to have included false information in
his application. It referred to Saakashvili claiming that he was not under
criminal investigation in Ukraine or beyond, when in fact a Georgian court had
placed him under arrest in absentia in August 2014.

In his response on his Facebook page, Saakashvili
accused Ukrainian President Poroshenko of politically persecuting him. “As soon
as those in power realized that the opposition is unifying in order to come out
into the streets this fall and put an end to their oligarchic pact, their fear
overcame their reason,” he wrote. “President Poroshenko has spit upon the
Constitution, of which he is supposed to be the guarantor.”

Recall, Saakashvili was awarded Ukrainian citizenship
in May 2015 when he was appointed Head of the Odesa regional administration by
President Poroshenko. He was stripped of his Georgian citizenship in December
2015, with the order for his arrest still active. He resigned his Ukrainian
administrative post in November 2016, accusing the president of corruption and
interfering with reforms.

Zenon Zawada: So much for
equality under the law under Ukrainian President Poroshenko, who is not wasting
any time in clearing the political field of competitors ahead of the 2019
presidential and parliamentary elections. Although Saakashvili has not surfaced
among the top candidates in recent polls, the political field is wide open for
conquest by any new project that can promise a realistic fight against corruption
and commitment to reforms.

Saakashvili had this potential, having begun to
organize a political party and maintaining a public profile by currently
hosting his own political talk show (after his resignation from a government post).
Besides enjoying solid support among the Ukrainian public, he also has the
strong backing of the West, as well as the NGO community. Given that he lost
his Georgian citizenship, it’s unclear what his future holds.

At this point, it looks as though former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will be the main challenger to Poroshenko in the 2019
elections. It’s better for Poroshenko to have as his rival someone like
Tymoshenko – a polarizing figure who has as many fervent enemies as she does
supporters – rather than Saakashvili, who is a new face to the Ukrainian
political scene, widely believed to be a serious reformer and enjoys a mostly
positive image.