Kiev vows to punish Saakashvili supporters
Kiew, Sept. 11: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko vowed on Monday to punish those responsible after former Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili forced his way back into Ukraine in the latest twist of their festering feud.
Mr Saakashvili, also a former regional governor in Ukraine, made a defiant return on Sunday as he and hundreds of his supporters barged their way past guards at a border crossing with Poland.
“A crime has been committed,” Mr Poroshenko said in televised comments on Monday. “There should be an absolutely unequivocal legal, judicial responsibility.”
Mr Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship while he was out of the country in July after the two had a major falling out over Mr Saakashvili’s accusations that the Kiev leadership had flagged in the fight against corruption.
That move left the proWestern politician stateless as he had earlier been stripped of his citizenship in his homeland Georgia.
Mr Saakashvili said that he was determined to reclaim his Ukrainian citizenship and get back into politics. “I returned home, to Ukraine, in order — first — to go to court and defend my rights,” he said. The stand-off with Mr Saakashvili is yet another headache for Mr Poroshenko, battling a Russian-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine and trying to revive the economy.