KHARKIV, Ukraine – Ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili stepped up his criticism of President Petro Poroshenko at a protest in the city of Kharkiv late on Oct. 15, saying that he would not let Poroshenko’s associates out of the country because they should be held responsible for their alleged corruption.
“They let me in this time, though they didn’t want to,” he said in a reference to the authorities’ failed attempt to prevent his re-entry into Ukraine on Sept. 10 after being stripped of citizenship by Poroshenko. “But we won’t let them out because they must be held responsible.”
The protest was attended by about 800 people as it was raining, with loudspeakers regularly going out of order apparently due to the weather, in the city of 1 million people — Ukraine’s second largest — located 478 kilometers east of Kyiv near the Russian border.
The rally came as Saakashvili’s party, other opposition groups and civil society organizations are mobilizing their supporters all over Ukraine ahead of a major Oct. 17 protest in Kyiv. The protest’s demands include the establishment of anti-corruption courts, canceling lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution, and adopting a new electoral law that would decrease oligarchs’ influence on elections.
The situation in the run-up to the Oct. 17 demonstration escalated as the Security Service of Ukraine and the Interior Ministry on Oct. 16 accused Saakashvili supporters of preparing provocations. Saakashvili denied the accusations, saying the protest would be fully peaceful, and blamed any future provocations on Poroshenko.
Criticism of Poroshenko
Citing a quote from Old Ruthenian prince Sviatoslav on a declaration of war, Saakashvili told the authorities “I’m going after you.”
Saakashvili lashed out hard at Poroshenko, calling him “a kleptocrat who has stolen billions from the people.” Poroshenko has denied the accusations.
“Poroshenko is a coward but I’m not afraid of him,” Saakashvili added.
He also said that “(Russia’s war against Ukraine) will be over when (Poroshenko ally Oleh) Hladkovsky stops profiteering from it, when the Leninska Kuznya shipyard stops producing caters and when Ukraine’s economy grows at a fast rate.”
Hladkovsky, a deputy secretary of the National Defense and Security Council, is linked to Cyprus-registered company HUDC Holding Limited and owns automaker Bohdan. Both companies have received lucrative government contracts, although Hladkovsky denies accusations of corruption.
The Rybalsky Kuznia shipyard, which Poroshenko owns with his close associate Ihor Kononenko, won government contracts, including military ones, worth $2.5 million in 2016, and contracts worth $560,000 in 2017.
On Oct. 11, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine arrested four top officials in an alleged corruption scheme in the defense industry linked to Trade Commodity. The firm is funded by Andriy Adamovsky, a business partner of Poroshenko’s top ally Oleksandr Hranovsky.
Saakashvili also argued that Poroshenko’s promotion of his business interests in the banking, auto manufacturing, agriculture, confectionary and sugar industries was destroying them.
He lambasted Poroshenko’s right-hand man Ihor Kononenko, who is accused of profiteering from many state firms and denies the accusations, and Hranovsky, who is widely believed to be in charge of the legal system.
“Wherever you look, Kononenko is in all businesses,” Saakashvili said. “And why do we have no justice? Because of Hranovsky.”
Ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili speaks at a rally in Kharkiv on Oct. 15.
Scuffles
The rally involved several scuffles between supporters and opponents of Saakashvili.
A group of veterans of Russia’s war against Ukraine from a group loyal to regional authorities counter-protested against Saakashvili’s rally, with one of them accusing the former Georgian president of trying to bring about Ukraine’s collapse. Meanwhile, several pro-government activists, or titushki, shouted “shame” at him.
Saakashvili’s supporters also quarreled with a group of pro-Russian residents, who blamed Russia’s war against Ukraine on pro-Ukrainian activists.
Pro-Russian sentiment is prominent in Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million people in the east of Ukraine. In April 2014 Russian-backed separatists declared a short-lived sham “republic” in the city.
Saakashvili argued that, despite its enormous potential as an IT and high-tech hub, the authorities had turned Kharkiv into a “swamp” and a “Soviet museum.”
Crooked courts
Meanwhile, Iryna Volosko, chairwoman of Lviv’s Halytsky Court, on Oct. 13 responded to a Kyiv Post request on alleged political interference into criminal cases against Saakashvili’s supporters connected with his crossing of the border.
In September Russian prankster Vladimir Kuznetsov released an audio recording in which he allegedly speaks with Volosko and pretends to be Poroshenko’s ally Hranovsky.
The person portrayed as Volosko expressed readiness to take orders from Hranovsky. “Understood, I’ve heard you,” she said. “I’ll do everything in my power.”
She also promised to get in touch with the judge who is hearing a case against Saakashvili ally David Sakvarelidze and asked the prankster whether the court was supposed to impose travel restrictions on him.
In her response to the Kyiv Post, Volosko did not deny that she had spoken to the prankster but claimed that the conversation could have no legal consequences and dismissed the prank as part of Russia’s disinformation war.
Crackdown on activists
Meanwhile, the authorities continued a crackdown on Saakashvili supporters ahead of the Oct. 17 Kyiv rally.
On Oct. 13, the police detained several activists of Saakashvili’s Movement of New Forces who were distributing leaflets for the rally in Kyiv and claimed that the materials contained calls for overthrowing the government.
Sakvarelidze also wrote on Oct. 14 that the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, had blocked the distribution of leaflets printed for the rally through the Nova Poshta postal services firm. The SBU did not respond to a request for comment.
On Oct. 15, Ukrainian border guards refused entry to Ukraine to Koba Nakopia, a Georgian associate of Saakashvili. They said there was a ban on his entry without specifying the reasons for the ban.
Sakvarelidze also said on Oct. 16 that the authorities were blocking the transportation of protesters by bus to Kyiv for the Oct. 17 demonstration from the cities of Kryvy Rih, Zhytomyr and Kropyvnytsky.
The National Corps, a nationalist group, said on Oct. 16 that the police and the National Guard were blocking roads leading to Kyiv and checking all major vehicles for the presence of protesters.
“History is repeating itself,” the group said. “Last time people were checked the same way by (ex-President Viktor) Yanukovych’s regime. Now Poroshenko’s regime is making the same mistake.”
