The President of Georgia considers unacceptable the possible appointment of the former President as Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine.
The President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili considers unacceptable the possible appointment of the former President Mikheil Saakashvili as the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and regrets that the situation around him caused a lack of trust between the two countries. A statement to this effect was made by the administration of the Georgian head of state on Tuesday.
“I regret the trust deficit that has already arisen between our countries, but I hope that the interests of the countries will be more valuable than narrow political ambitions and calculations,” the administration quoted the statement of the President of Georgia.
Zurabishvili stressed that Saakashvili has been convicted in absentia in Georgia and his possible appointment to a high position in Ukraine is alarming.
“Georgia and Ukraine are strategic partners. <…> Despite this, these days our partner is considering a candidate for a high position, who has been found guilty by three Georgian courts. It should be noted that this has caused reasonable alarm and sharp reaction of the Georgian authorities and society”, – Zurabishvili said.
Saakashvili headed Georgia from January 2004 to November 2013 and left the country a few days before the presidential term expired. Immediately after that, four criminal cases were opened against him, two of which have already resulted in verdicts. In particular, the court sentenced Saakashvili in absentia to three years in prison in the case of the murder of Sandro Girgvliani, an employee of the United Bank of Georgia, and to six years in prison in the case of the beating of deputy Valeri Gelashvili.
Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko invited Saakashvili to the country in 2015, granted him citizenship and appointed him head of Odessa region. However, they soon had a conflict and in July 2017, when Saakashvili was abroad, Poroshenko was stripped of his citizenship. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky returned his Ukrainian citizenship in May 2019.
Last week Saakashvili said he accepted Zelenskyy’s proposal to be appointed Deputy Prime Minister for Reform. Later, the faction of the presidential party “Servant of the People” in the Verkhovna Rada started discussing his candidacy, but the idea of the appointment was not submitted to parliament. Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia said that if Saakashvili was appointed, the republic would recall the ambassador from Kiev. Ukrainian mass media reported on Tuesday that the Ukrainian government withdrew the idea of appointing Saakashvili from Rada.