The leader of Georgia’s 2003 Rose Revolution again poured scorn on those allegations, and accused Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, a former ally, of trying to sideline critics and rivals ahead of elections planned for next year. and I will remain a Ukrainian politician and fight to the end against corruption and the corrupt oligarchy in Ukraine and in Georgia, ” Mr Saakashvili said in Warsaw on Tuesday. Mr Poroshenko invited Mr Saakashvili – with whom he studied in Kiev – to become the governor of the important but crime-ridden Odessa region in 2015. After Mr Saakashvili formed a new party called the Movement of New Forces, Mr Poroshenko revoked his Ukrainian citizenship last July due to alleged irregularities in his paperwork. Mr Saakashvili and many Ukrainians saw this as a politically motivated attack, however, and it came as reformist deputies and civil society groups accused the billionaire Mr Poroshenko of protecting the interests of a corrupt elite.

Source: The Irish Times February 13, 2018 19:07 UTC