Saakashvili says revocation of Ukraine citizenship "stab in the back"
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has suggested to the BBC that the revocation of his earlier obtained Ukrainian citizenship was a result of two oligarchs uniting against him.
"Poroshenko lacked brains, experience, and restraint not to allow himself such utter foolishness... He is ‘shooting at himself’ rather than running the country," Saakashvili said in an interview with the BBC's Russian Service. He noted that this was not the way people have their citizenship revoked.
If there are legal claims, this is done in courts, "then there would be a perception of a legal process." "Having done it so sneakily, while I was on a brief foreign visit, means that the authorities did something very wrong, and that they were in a hurry. What we saw had nothing to do with the legal process," Saakashvili said, adding that "it was the cowardly act by President Poroshenko, just a stab in the back.
The legal issues absolutely do not matter here." The former president of Georgia believes that he was deprived of citizenship, since Poroshenko viewed him as the most important obstacle for him and the oligarchs to retain power.
When asked about Poroshenko's visit to Georgia, Saakashvili responded that "he went there to resolve his issue with me," since he was not interested in anything else there. "He tried to agree on extraditing me to Georgia but Ivanishvili does not want to have me brought to Georgia because it will be impossible to keep me locked up in prison there. Therefore, the only thing they agreed at their secret meeting in Ureki, which lasted more than two hours, is that the Georgian prosecutor's office make a request, while Poroshenko pretend that they provided data that different from what they had given two or three years ago," Saakashvili said. In addition, Saakashvili noted that he holds no passports of other countries. "I don’t want them. I hold an absolutely legal passport of Ukraine, which was illegally revoked by Poroshenko. Justice will be restored," he said.
He ruled out the possibility that he would not be able to return to Ukraine. "I rule this out. I promised the people of Ukraine that I would return, and I always keep my promises," he said.
Source: UNIAN