A prominent foreign businessman who has voiced solidarity with pro EU demonstrators is being held at a Ukrainian airport and prevented from entering the country, raising concern among diplomats and the expatriate community.
George Kikvadze, a US-educated Georgian national employed as a top executive at Ukraine’s Terra food conglomerate, was on Saturday denied entry into the country.
“Border guards told me there is an order from the state security service of Ukraine not to let me in,” Mr Kikvadze told the Financial Times by telephone from Kyiv’s Boryspil airport. “I’ve been here for five years, building jobs and attracting investment. Apparently I am now a dangerous revolutionary trying to take down the government.”
The news of the banning of some foreigners came as tens of thousands of anti-government protesters continued to rally in Kiev, calling on Viktor Yanukovich, the president, to reverse his decision to move away from EU integration and towards Russia’s orbit.
Mr Kikvadze is among 36 foreigners, mostly Georgian nationals but also US citizens, who are members of Kyiv’s foreign business community or professors at local universities who have been identified on a list compiled by Oleg Tsarov, a pro-presidential lawmaker, as threats to the country.
