Ex-Ukrainian president Yushchenko expresses support for detained Saakashvili

Former president of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko has expressed support for the third president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili who was detained in Tbilisi on October 1 after eight years in political exile. 

 

Yushchenko says that Saakashvili, who currently is a citizen of Ukraine and chairs the executive committee of Ukrainian National Reforms Council, was a ‘turning point’ in the history of Georgia, placing the country on western rails. 

 

He says that Russia is not interested in free, democratic and successful Georgia and that it would be regrettable if the country plays the Russian game and affects the state interests with its moves towards Saakashvili. 

 

Saakashvili claims he returned to Georgia to save the country from the ‘rule of the Georgian Dream government which acts in line with Russian interests.’ 

 

He says that he is a ‘personal prisoner’ of Russian president Vladimir Putin. 

 

Saakashvili was convicted in Georgia back in 2018 for abuse of authority in absentia and has been sentenced to six years in prison. 

 

He has also been charged with four other cases related to illegal takeover of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal and illegally crossing the border.