Georgia has long been one of Ukraine’s top allies, sharing many of the same struggles.
Two post-Soviet republics, with substantial chunks of land occupied by Russia, have long united their voices in an attempt to join the European Union and part ways with their warmongering neighbor.
However, Georgia’s arrest of its former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, now a Ukrainian citizen imprisoned by Tbilisi, has strained relations between the two partners.
Saakashvili, who led Georgia from 2004 until 2013 with a brief intermission, was arrested upon arrival on Oct. 1. In Georgia, Saakashvili has been sentenced to six years on abuse of office charges, which the ex-president says are politically motivated.
Despite being wanted by Georgian authorities, Saakashvili maintained influence over Georgian politics from abroad. Saakashvili leads the United National Movement, the largest opposition party in the country.
His return to Georgia and subsequent arrest took place amidst ongoing local elections, pivotal for the country’s political future.
The decision to go after and eventually lock up Saakashvili has been gradually deteriorating Ukrainian-Georgian bilateral relations.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine will demand the immediate release of Saakashvili, who was granted Ukrainian citizenship while helping the Ukrainian government after the pro-Western EuroMaidan Revolution ended the presidency of Kremlin-backed Victor Yanukovych in 2014.
“As the president of Ukraine, I am constantly engaged in the process of returning Ukrainian citizens. Saakashvili is a Ukrainian citizen,” Zelensky said on Oct. 3.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands took to the streets of Tbilisi on Oct. 14 to demand Saakashvili’s release. Saakashvili remains in prison and has been on a hunger strike since Oct. 3.
“Ukraine will have to act accordingly,” said Hanna Shelest, security studies program director at Ukraine Prism think tank. “He (Saakashvili) has an official post; he is considered to be part of Zelensky’s team.”
Saakashvili’s rise & fall
Ukraine’s fruitful partnership with Georgia was reached under Saakashvili.
After years of corruption, nepotism and economic mismanagement, Georgians took to the streets in 2003. Following the Rose Revolution, Saakashvili won the presidential elections with an astonishing 97% electoral support.
His United National Movement won the majority of seats in parliament during the 2004 elections, completing the transition of power to a pro-Western, pro-reform government.
Less than a year after the Georgian Rose Revolution, Ukraine witnessed the Orange Revolution, triggered by a fraudulent presidential election. The uprising succeeded and the pro-Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko won the re-vote.
Saakashvili and Yushchenko had a personal connection, effectively deepening Ukraine-Georgian cooperation. Bilateral trade increased annually, a free trade agreement was implemented, and Saakashvili was a regular guest in Ukraine.
Ukraine also actively supported Saakashvili during the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, in which Russia took full control of the breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.
Both Ukraine and Georgia were denied a NATO membership action plan the same year.
In 2012, Saakashvili’s United National Movement lost the parliamentary elections to the newly established Georgian Dream party which capitalized on Saakashvili’s shortcomings and promoted closer relations with Russia. Videos of torture in Georgian prisons were among the primary forces leading to Saakashvili’s demise.
After Saakashvili’s term ended, legal cases began piling up. Saakashvili was charged with multiple counts of abuse of office and embezzlement.
He was sentenced to three years for pardoning ex-Interior Ministry officials and six years for covering up the beating of a Georgian lawmaker in 2005.
Saakashvili, his supporters and a number of European politicians accused the governing Georgian Dream party and its founder and ex-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country’s richest person, of being behind the attacks on the ex-president.
Meanwhile, Saakashvili took shelter in Ukraine. He supported the pro-western EuroMaidan Revolution and was soon appointed governor of Odesa Oblast. Ukraine denied Georgia’s request to extradite Saakashvili in 2015. But Saakashvili had a falling out with Petro Poroshenko, leaving his governor’s post after accusing the then-president of obstruction reforms. By 2018, Poroshenko forcibly deported Saakashvili, who returned only after Zelensky’s election in 2019. He became the chair of the executive committee of the National Reforms Council in 2020 and a Kyiv Post columnist as well.
The arrest
With Interpol refusing to put Saakashvili on red notice, the ex-president was safe abroad.
However, the ongoing political crisis in Georgia and the possibility of taking back control in his native country brought Saakashvili back home.
This screen grab made from an handout video released by Georgia’s Interior Ministry shows former Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili escorted by police officer as he was detained in Tbilisi on Oct. 1, 2021, following his arrest upon his return from exile ahead of local elections in the Caucasus country gripped by a protracted political crisis. (AFP)
The 2020 Georgian parliamentary elections were once again won by the Georgian Dream party which gained 90 seats out of 150.
However, Georgian opposition boycotted the elections’ second round citing fraud. As a result, Georgian Dream won all 30 single-member constituencies.
Georgian opposition, led by Saakashvili’s United National Movement, boycotted parliament leaving their seats vacant.
To find a peaceful solution, the government and opposition signed an agreement fostered by European Council President Charles Michel.
According to the plan, snap parliament elections would be called in early 2022 if the Georgian Dream party gains less than 43% of the vote during the two-round October local elections.
Georgian Dream soon said the agreement was null and void, while the opposition continued to abide by it.
Saakashvili arrived in Tbilisi in an attempt to build up support for the opposition. During the first round, held on Oct. 2, Georgian Dream gained 46% of the vote, with the largest Georgian cities awaiting a mayoral run-off on Oct. 30.
A day after, imprisoned Saakashvili began a hunger strike. On Oct. 14, over 50,000 people, according to the Associated Press, marched through Tbilisi’s central Rustaveli Avenue to demand Saakashvili’s release.
Bilateral stalemate
According to Shelest, Saakashvili’s arrest will affect bilateral relations between Ukraine and Georgia, which still need to find common ground on key bilateral issues such as trade and Euro-Atlantic integration.
“This is not the first crisis sparked by Saakashvili,” Shelest says. “Ukraine and Georgia found how to work past them in the past.”
Ukraine-Georgian bilateral relations in 2020 were a clear example of this statement.
Last year, Ukraine backed Georgia in the United Nations, co-authored a resolution on human rights in Abkhazia and demanded the de-occupation of the two Russian-occupied regions of Georgia.
In turn, Georgia co-authored UN resolutions concerning the deteriorating human rights situation in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Bilateral trade amounted to $500 million.
Meanwhile, in May 2020, Georgia recalled its ambassador to Ukraine, Teymuraz Sharashenidze, as a response to Saakashvili’s appointment as the head of Ukraine’s reform council. The ambassador was returned almost a year later.
After Saakashvili began his hunger strike, Ukraine called new Georgian Ambassador Georgi Zakarashvili for questioning on Oct. 4.
“Saakashvili is a factor that you can’t close your eyes to,” said Shelest. “Fortunately, the Georgian and Ukrainian sides were able to separate in the past the problems concerning Saakashvili from bilateral relations.”
Yet, with Saakashvili in prison with deteriorating health, the ongoing crisis can prove to be the most severe.
