Ex-President Saakashvili Pledges to Return to Georgia
Mikheil Saakashvili, ex-President of Georgia and the leader of the Ukrainian opposition party New Force, pledges to return to Georgia and improve the economic situation in the country.
In a video address, Georgia’s third president speaks about the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and its establisher, tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, accusing him of using people’s money to get richer.
The ex-President claims there is a “catastrophic” economic situation in Georgia, adding that the Georgian economy is being managed by Ivanishvili’s mafia.
“Ivanishvili has made deals with numerous banks and is destroying the Georgian economy together with them by making every Georgian family a debtor of these banks,” he stressed.
According to him, he will destroy that "mafia" in the Georgian economy and increase salaries.
Saakashvili stated that if the National Movement wins the people's, he plans to take a series of economic measures and improve the situation in the country.
“There are some charges against me in court to prevent me from coming back to Georgia, but this will not happen. I will come,” he claimed.
At present, Saakashvili is in The Netherlands, the homeland of his spouse Sandra Roelofs, after being deported from Ukraine to Poland in February.
Saakashvili was detained in Kyiv while he was having lunch in a Georgian restaurant on February 12, and sent to Poland for having violated Ukrainian law in September 2017 when he illegally crossed into Ukraine.
Saakashvili is also wanted in Georgia for embezzlement and abuse of power, which he describes as politically motivated charges. In case he is extradited to his homeland, the third President of Georgia faces immediate arrest and imprisonment.
By Thea Morrison
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