Former Georgian president and Ukrainian citizen, Mikheil Saakashvili, currently in a Georgian prison, needs urgent medical treatment.
His health is reportedly in danger and this indomitable Georgian-Ukrainian political reformer should be allowed to leave for treatment abroad.
You may like and admire Saakashvili, or you can dislike or even detest the firebrand politician who in the past has done so much for his native Georgia, and also for his adopted second country, Ukraine.
Saakashvili belongs to a rare breed of forceful democratic political personalities. He has devoted his life to bringing democratic change and modernization in the countries in which he has been active, both as president of Georgia and as a prominent political figure in Ukraine.
An uncompromising and outspoken political activist, he has been a champion for those opposed to corruption, and also accommodation with Putin’s rapacious Russian regime, but a foe for those who have felt threatened and exposed by his direct talking, reformist strategies and indomitable spirit.
Saakashvili has faced the ire of such detractors both in Georgia and Ukraine. Former president Petro Poroshenko at first invited him to curb corruption in the Odesa region and then betrayed him by siding with local Mafiosi. In a shameful day for Ukraine’s democracy and proclaimed rule of law, Poroshenko went as far as to arrest Saakashvili, strip him of his Ukrainian citizenship and in February 2018 deport him.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, invited Saakashvili to spearhead the reform process in Ukraine. The enthusiastic Georgian Ukrainophile even contributed his valuable recommendations as a periodic columnist on the pages of the Kyiv Post.
Saakashvili returned to Georgia in September 2021 on the eve of elections and was arrested. Official Kyiv has on numerous occasions expressed its concern about his health and well-being as a Ukrainian citizen.
With his health gravely undermined, at this time of Christmas and the New Year, it is time for the Georgian government to deal humanely with this remarkable son of Georgia and adopted son of Ukraine.
Misha should be allowed to leave for medical treatment abroad.
