Ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, said on Aug. 16 that he is coming back to Ukraine on Sept. 10 through the Krakovets checkpoint in Lviv Oblast on the Polish border.
Saakashvili, who has become stateless, mentioned this in a video statement from Warsaw.
He said he was going to enter Ukraine openly without violating any laws, not clandestinely, and said that it was Poroshenko who had “violated the Constitution, as well as Ukrainian and international law.” Saakashvili added that he would seek to protect his rights in a Ukrainian court.
Saakashvili, a major political opponent of Poroshenko, urged Ukrainian authorities not to prevent him from entering the country and not to “turn this into a circus for Russian television.”
“I’ve had offers to get citizenship from several European countries but this is not for me,” he said. “I’ve committed to help Ukrainians get rid of oligarchs and crooks.”
Saakashvili said that, when Poroshenko stripped him of citizenship, he thought it was “a sign of strength.” “I think it’s a sign of death throes,” he added.
Saakashvili also mentioned Ukrainian authorities’ crackdown on anti-corruption activists and opposition politicians.
“First (Ukrainian authorities) got rid of war veterans and volunteer fighters,” Saakashvili argued, referring to criminal cases against them. “Now they are cracking down on people who are fighting oligarchs and corruption – for example, Vitaly Shabunin – and have become a major obstacle to those who are robbing and destroying the country.”
Kyiv police on Aug. 16 handed Vitaly Shabunin, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board, a notice of suspicion, accusing him of assaulting journalist and activist Vsevolod Filimonenko. Shabunin believes the case to be a political vendetta for his criticism of the authorities.
Saakashvili was stripped of his citizenship when he was in the United States. He subsequently traveled to Poland, Lithuania and Hungary and said that all these countries had recognized his Ukrainian passport as legitimate.
Deputy Prosecutor General Eugene Enin has claimed that Saakashvili needed a visa to come to Ukraine.
But lawyer Markiyan Halabala said this is not true, arguing that, under Ukrainian law, stateless persons who permanently reside in Ukraine do not need a visa.
Poroshenko cited Saakashvili’s alleged legal violations when Poroshenko granted him Ukrainian citizenship in 2015.
Poroshenko’s critics saw the motive as revenge for Saakashvili’s opposition activities and criticism of authorities. They argue that the decree stripping him of citizenship is illegal and unconstitutional.
Lawyer Vitaly Tytych said that the decree was illegal and absurd from the standpoint of Ukrainian and international law.
He said that only a conviction for a severe crime could be grounds for stripping someone of Ukrainian citizenship. Saakashvili has not been convicted in any criminal cases.
Moreover, Poroshenko has refused to publish the decree, citing confidential information. Yulia Kyrychenko, a constitutional law expert at the Reanimation Package of Reforms, and Vsevolod Rechytsky from the Kharkiv Human Rights Group said that the refusal to publish a presidential decree is illegal.
The Constitution bans authorities from stripping anyone of citizenship — a measure intended to prevent the resurrection of the Soviet practice when dissidents were deprived of their citizen status. Lawyers differ on whether the constitutional ban applies to Saakashvili’s case.
Poroshenko has been accused of using a politicized selective approach since he did not cancel the citizenship of State Fiscal Service Chief Roman Nasirov, a suspect in a corruption case who is a citizen of the United Kingdom, and others with double citizenship. Under Ukrainian law, double citizenship is banned.
Poroshenko’s decree to strip Saakashvili of citizenship has been compared to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s decision to deprive businessman Demyan Kudryavtsev of citizenship in February. The decision was based on the same grounds as in Saakashvili’s case – that Kudryavtsev allegedly provided incorrect information when he got Russian citizenship.
Kudryavtsev owns the Vedomosti newspaper and used to own the Moscow Times, with both publications coming under attack for their criticism of the Kremlin.
On July 26, 11 out of the Citizenship Commission’s 15 members voted for stripping Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship.
Oleksiy Takhtai, one of the commission members and the Interior Ministry’s state secretary, supported the decision.
In video footage uploaded to YouToube, people resembling Takhtai, then Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Chebotar and Vasyl Petrivsky, CEO of state firm Spetservis, negotiate a corrupt deal to sell sand seized in a criminal case. According to the court register, the video footage is genuine and has been recorded by the Security Service of Ukraine. Commenting on the accusations, Takhtai has said that he had not seen the video.
In the video, Chebotar says that Interior Minister Arsen Avakov is also aware of the deal and is worried that the sand has not been sold yet. Chebotar had to resign due to corruption scandals in 2015. Poroshenko Bloc lawmaker Serhiy Kaplin said then that a notice of suspicion had been prepared for Chebotar, and he had fled Ukraine. Petrivsky has been charged by prosecutors with embezzlement.
Presidential Administration Head Ihor Rainin’s Chief of Staff Oleksiy Dniprov, who must be fired under the 2014 lustration law, voted for the decision on Saakashvili too. Poroshenko has refused to fire Dniprov regardless of the law. Dniprov is also under investigation in a theft case against his former boss, ex-Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk.
The move was also backed by Security Service of Ukraine Deputy Chief Viktor Kononenko, who headed the unit that organized a paid protest in front of Shabunin’s house, according to a Radio Liberty investigation.
