Ex-Georgian President and ex-Odesa Oblast Governor Mikheil Saakashvili demanded verification on the application form that he used to receive Ukrainian citizenship more than two years ago, claiming that his signature on the document had been forged all along.
“Poroshenko issued a decree stripping me of my nationality on the basis of this fake document, which means that either president himself or someone close to him committed a crime,” Saakashvili wrote on Facebook on July 29.
Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship last week. A statement from the State Migration Service cited incorrect information on his application as the reason.
The former Odesa governor believes the expulsion is politically motivated, accusing President Petro Poroshenko of trying to remove his political opponents.
The photo of the last page from Saakashvili’s application dated May 28, 2015, was posted on Facebook by Verkhovna Rada deputy Volodymyr Ariev, a member of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, three days ago.
Saakashvili said the signature was forged and demanded that it be verified.
“With full responsibility, I declare that the form, which I allegedly filed incorrectly, is fake and this is not my signature,” he wrote in the July 29 Facebook post.
Ariev provided some additional details on the burgeoning scandal. In his words, the application was prepared and submitted by Saakashvili’s assistants, not him personally. Moreover, it had been backdated.
“If the signature doesn’t belong to Saakashvili, a new question arises: was he granted citizenship based on false documents? This is more serious than merely lying on the application,” he wrote.
Mikheil Saakashvili is currently in New York, but plans to return to Ukraine. Poroshenko hasn’t commented yet.
