Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who heads the Movement of New Forces party, has said he intends to restore his Ukrainian citizenship.
“It was not necessary to deprive me of citizenship. It was against all legal norms… I was and remain a Ukrainian politician, just like I am a Georgian, but I will restore my Ukrainian citizenship,” Saakashvili said at a press conference in Warsaw on Feb.13.
According to him, he stayed in Ukraine absolutely legally.
“I returned to Ukraine on legal grounds, as a permanent resident. I did not have permanent residence in any other country. I was given a temporary document in Ukraine, which was valid until March,” Saakashvili added.
As reported, in July 2017, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree stripping Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship when he was in the United States. On Sept.10, the politician and his supporters broke through the Polish-Ukrainian border.
On Feb.12, 2018, he was detained in Kyiv and returned to Poland. The Polish Border Guard Service said that Saakashvili had been deported to Poland on the basis of an application on readmission from the State Migration Service of Ukraine.
