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Former Georgian president Saakashvili enters Ukraine without passport

Mikheil Saakashvili, former President of Georgia. Image: Chatham House/Wikimedia/CC BY 2.0

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and a group of supporters broke through a line of security guards at the Polish-Ukrainian border and entered Ukraine on Sunday, September 10, Hromadske International reported. Saakashvili had previously been stopped from entering the country by train; the Ukranian national police have denied involvement.

Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of his Ukranian citizenship in July, making the former president a stateless person.

“There is a presidential order [on cancelling Saakashvili’s citizenship.] We also have have a directive from the State Migration Service [SMS]. These orders declare [Saakashvili’s] documents invalid. Therefore, they will be seized and handed over to SMS,” Vasyl Servatyuk, deputy SMS chairman, said.

Ukranian deputy justice minister Sergiy Petukhov told reporters earlier last week that “Ukraine has received a request to search for, detain and extradite Mikheil Saakashvili.”

Saakashvili is a supporter of Ukraine’s Euromaidan movement and was previously appointed to be Governor of Odessa Oblast in Ukraine by Poroshenko, when he also received his Ukranian citizenship.

Saakashvili resigned his post as governor in November, blaming Poroshenko for enabling corruption in the country.

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