Corruption is Everywhere - Definitely in the Ukraine
By Jonathon Gatehouse, CBC News
Mikhail Saakashvili is gone from Ukraine, but he is unwilling to be forgotten.
The former president of Georgia, who became an ally and then a foe of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, gave a fiery press conference in Warsaw, Poland, this morning following his forced deportation from Kiev yesterday.
"Poroshenko believes that he has beaten off the opponent whom he is fearful of the most. He falsified a case against me and threw me out of the country," said the 50-year-old opposition leader.
Ukrainian opposition figure Mikheil Saakashvili arrives for a news conference in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday.
(Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
"We will wring the neck of the Ukrainian oligarchy. They will be sent to prison, where they belong. I promise this."
The falling out between Saakashvili and Poroshenko, once university chums and then political admirers who bonded over their mutual mistrust of Russia, is operatic in scale.
Living in exile in the United States after his 2012 electoral defeat, and facing corruption charges at home, Saakashvili accepted his old friend's offer to become governor of Odessa in early 2015.
Saakashvili supporters rally in Kiev on Feb. 4. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)
In the months that followed, Ukraine denied Georgia's attempts to extradite Saakashvili and even granted him citizenship.
But relations between the two leaders quickly soured. Saakashvili resigned from his job in late 2016 and started his own anti-corruption political party, the Movement of New Forces.
Last summer, Poroshenko stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship while he was outside the country. In September Saakashvili stormed back across the border with Poland, carried by a crowd of supporters.
For months, he and members of his party have staged almost daily demonstrations outside of Ukraine's parliament calling for Poroshenko's ouster.
Saakashvili is detained by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine outside his apartment in Kiev on Dec. 5, 2017. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)
An initial attempt to deport Saakashvili last December was foiled by angry protesters who gathered outside of his Kiev apartment and pulled him from a police van.
But yesterday, Ukrainian authorities had the element of surprise when they descended on the opposition leader while he was eating lunch in a Georgian restaurant. CCTV footage shows helmeted riot police placing a bag over Saakashvili's head and hustling him out of the building. An hour later, he was aboard a chartered jet on its way to Warsaw.
Saakashvili, who is now technically stateless, having given up his Georgian citizenship in 2015, says the fight is not over.
Ukrainians holding a banner reading 'Poroshenko is not our president' demonstrate in front of President Petro Poroshenko's office in Kiev on Monday.
(Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)
Addressing Ukraine's "idiots" at today's press conference, he vowed to recover his passport and head back to Kiev.
"I will be almost as efficient in Europe over the next few weeks as I used to be in Ukraine," he said, and then switched into the third person.
"Saakashvili at liberty is more dangerous for Poroshenko than Saakashvili whom they persecuted in Ukraine. We will peacefully oust the oligarchs from power."
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