Saakashvili Makes TIME’s “The 5 Most Wanted Geopolitical Fugitives of 2018” List

Being Mikheil Saakashvili cannot be easy. One would be forgiven for wondering what goes on inside the man’s head, and if he himself is at all as entertained by his antics as many of us are. After a couple of eventful episodes over the last few months, Misha has found himself back in the international spotlight,  recently making TIME Magazine’s “The 5 Most Wanted Geopolitical Fugitives of 2018” list.

The renowned American political scientist had this to say about ol’ Misha, 

“Educated in the West, Saakashvili was one of the leaders of Georgia’s (nonviolent) “Rose Revolution” in 2003; he then served as Georgia’s president from 2004 to 2013. Having left office with allegations of embezzlement and human rights violations hanging over him, Saakashvili exiled himself to the U.S. But in 2015 he accepted an offer from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to become governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region and to introduce much needed reforms. He gave up Georgian citizenship, to become a citizen of Ukraine. 

By November 2016, he had resigned his post, holding an angry press conference in which he accused Poroshenko of personally supporting corruption in Ukraine and “supporting local Odessa gangs.” Needless to say, that did not win him many fans among Ukraine’s governing elite, who have since accused Saakashvili of helping a criminal organization led by ex-Ukrainian (and pro-Moscow) president Viktor Yanukovych. Poroshenko stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship in July last year, making him a stateless person. 

This past December, footage went viral of Saakashvili trying to evade police on the rooftops of Kiev. When police did finally manage to apprehend him, throngs of his supporters surrounded the service van that was supposed to take him to a detention center, and he escaped. 

Sometimes…outlaws can become heroes for those who oppose their would-be jailers.” 

The other people four people on Bremmer’s list were: exiled Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont; Turkey’s public enemy number one Fetullah Gulen; Wikileaks founder Julian Assange; Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.

By Máté Földi