Interior Ministry claims Saakashvili in Ukraine, not crossed into Georgia

The Georgian Interior Ministry says that the country’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili has not crossed into Georgia and that, according to Kyiv, Saakashvili has not left Ukraine. 

 

In a briefing earlier today the ministry has not commented whether the video Saakashvili released late yesterday is authentic or not. 

 

Saakashvili, the third president of Georgia who is currently taking an official post in Ukraine, says in his live video that he is in Batumi, Georgia, ahead of tomorrow’s municipal elections. 

 

The ruling Georgian Dream party says that the video is fake, while the UNM members state that Saakashvili will appear in public earlier tomorrow. 

 

In the video Saakashvili urges people to vote for the United National Movement opposition party and to take to the streets in central Tbilisi on October 3. 

 

Saakashvili has been charged and convicted in absentia in Georgia and will be arrested if he really returned, the Georgian government says.