Saakashvili Calls on Europe to Impose Sanctions on Ukrainian President

Speaking from his new base in his wife’s home country of The Netherlands, former Georgian President and governor of Odessa, Ukraine, Mikheil Saakashvili called on European leaders to impose sanctions on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his inner circle. Saakashvili accuses Poroshenko and others of the Ukrainian political elite of violating his human rights when he was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship and deported, leaving him a stateless person. Saakashvili lost his Georgian citizenship in 2015 when he became a citizen of Ukraine in order to join the government there.

The official reason for his loss of Ukrainian citizenship was that Saakashvili concealed information that he faced criminal proceedings in his native Georgia when he applied for citizenship. The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, however, argues that Saakashvili was, in fact, illegally stripped of his citizenship, noting “Ukraine’s Law on Citizenship expressly prohibits any such move if it would result in the individual becoming stateless, and this is precisely what has happened here.”

Saakashvili urged European countries to pressure Poroshenko into restoring his citizenship through sanctions that target assets he alleges Ukraine’s leaders obtained illegally. “We are looking for their assets across Europe to impound them, because they were stolen from the Ukrainian people,” he said.

Alongside Saakashvili was international law expert Geoffrey Robertson, who said international diplomacy is the best way forward for Saakashvili, who cannot take his case to European courts until he has exhausted his options in Ukraine’s slow-moving judicial system, according to the AP. “There is no immediate solution that European law offers. It is time for diplomatic action to be taken to ensure that Ukraine changes its position,” said Robertson.

By Samantha Guthrie

Photo: Bloomberg