Ukraine’s President Sidelines Opponent by Stripping His Citizenship
After the 2014 revolution overthrew a pro-Russian president in Ukraine, Mr. Saakashvili
and about a dozen other Georgian officials with experience rooting out corruption moved to Ukraine to join the new government.
By ANDREW E. KRAMERJULY 27, 2017
MOSCOW — Once they were prominent allies in opposing the Kremlin: President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine
and the former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Mr. Saakashvili responded in a post on his Facebook page, saying
that Mr. Poroshenko had "crossed a red line" with the decree, and by failing to address corruption.
But they have now fallen out so badly that on Wednesday, Mr. Poroshenko stripped Mr. Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship, leaving him stateless.
The bureau, which gained notice last summer when it revealed off-the-books payments to President Trump’s former
campaign chairman, Paul J. Manafort, has been locked in a power struggle with the Poroshenko administration.
To comply with Ukrainian law on government service, they had to renounce their Georgian citizenship and accept Ukrainian citizenship.
And in the ultimate insult for opponents of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin,
Mr. Saakashvili suggested that Mr. Poroshenko might have to flee to Russia.
