WARSAW (Reuters) - Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili has landed in Poland, a spokeswoman at Polish border control said on Monday.

Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia, was deported to Poland from Ukraine earlier on Monday.</s>Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-14 23:19:08|Editor: yan

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THE HAGUE, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was deported from Ukraine to Poland on Monday, arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands on Wednesday.

His lawyer Oscar Hammerstein told national broadcaster NOS that Saakashvili was currently in Rotterdam to arrange his settlement in the Netherlands, which was approved by the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service. He has already received a temporary residence permit.

Based on the family reunification rule, Saakashvili can relocate to the Netherlands because he has a Dutch wife.

"It is, like always, good to be here," Saakashvili said to the NOS. "I am here in the Netherlands because of what happened in Ukraine. We will see what happens."

The 50-year-old Saakashvili was president of Georgia from 2004 until 2013. After his political career in Georgia, he moved to Ukraine as an ally of current Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. He acquired Ukrainian citizenship in May 2015, losing his Georgian passport as a result, and was appointed governor of the southern Odessa region.

Saakashvili soon became an opponent of Poroshenko, blaming the government for corruption and in July 2017 Saakashvili's Ukrainian citizenship was revoked. He is now a stateless person.

Saakashvili was detained by Ukrainian border guards on Monday in Kiev and deported to Poland by plane. According to Ukraine, Saakashvili was on Ukrainian territory illegally and therefore had to return to the country from which he had arrived.

The deportation on Monday came shortly after a Kiev court rejected his appeal against extradition to Georgia, where he was convicted for abuse of power during his presidential term, which carries a three-year prison sentence.</s>Ukrainian opposition leader and ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili was deported to Poland on Monday, the Ukrainian border service said, after he was detained in a Kiev restaurant by law enforcement agents in camouflage, Reuters reported.

Poland’s border service confirmed that he had arrived and that Warsaw had agreed to let him enter.

“This person was on Ukrainian territory illegally and therefore, in compliance with all legal procedures, he was returned to the country from where he arrived,” border service spokesman Oleh Slobodyan said in a post on Facebook.

“This is not a president and not a man. This is a lowlife crook who wants to wreck Ukraine. All this shows how weak they are. We will of necessity defeat them.”</s>Ukraine’s President Poroshenko has acted to remove former Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili from Ukraine, having Saakashvili arrested and bundled onto a private jet which flew him to Poland.

Saakashvili’s unceremonious removal from Ukraine appears to have been made at a time when legal proceedings to decide whether or not he should be removed from Ukraine were still underway. If so then Saakashvili’s removal is arguably illegal and shows contempt for the processes of the Ukrainian court.

I doubt however that anyone in Ukraine would either be surprised about that or would much care about it, and – sad to say – I doubt that the vigilant upholders of the law, human rights and due process in the US and EU, who claim to be Ukraine’s friends and who talk about steering Ukraine towards law governed EU-style democracy, would much care about it either.

Saakashvili’s removal from Ukraine removes from the Ukrainian political scene – at least for the moment – a political adventurer who had become something of a thorn in President Poroshenko’s side.

Saakashvili actually has only minimal levels of political support in Ukraine.

The problem for President Poroshenko is that there is not much support for him in Ukraine either – his approval rating has collapsed – so that any challenge to him from any quarter – including it seems from a figure as discredited and as unpopular as Saakashvili – is apparently more than he can tolerate.

The fact that Ukraine is due to hold Presidential elections next year almost certainly gave Poroshenko an extra incentive to get Saakashvili out of the country before the election cycle began, and he has now acted to make that happen.

Donate to The Duran Every Dollar, Pound and Euro you send us helps our publication stay active, reach more people and to continue to shed light on the social-political issues of our time. Will you help expose the lies of the mainstream media? As a reader of The Duran, you are well aware of all the propaganda and disinformation reported by the mainstream media. You know how important it is to bring real news to light. Please support The Duran and help us keep reporting on news that is fair, balanced, and real.</s>"Het is, zoals altijd, goed om hier te zijn", zegt Saakasjvili tegen de NOS in Rotterdam, waar hij met zijn advocaat is. "Rotterdam ken ik niet zo goed, maar ik kom vaak in Zeeland, in Terneuzen, en natuurlijk Amsterdam. Vanwege wat er is gebeurd in Oekraïne ben ik hier. We zien wel hoelang ik blijf."

Gebrouilleerd

Saakasjvili is geboren in Georgië en was daar negen jaar president, tot 2013. Later werd hij gouverneur in Oekraïne. Hij was aanvankelijk een bondgenoot van president Porosjenko, maar raakte met hem gebrouilleerd. Saakasjvili beschuldigt de regering van grootschalige corruptie. Sinds november 2016 is hij geen gouverneur meer.

In december gingen beelden van pogingen van de Oekraïense autoriteiten om Saakasjvili op te pakken de wereld over. Aanhangers van hem wisten te voorkomen dat hij werd meegenomen.</s>KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili has been deported to Poland, a spokesman for Ukraine’s border service said on Monday.

“This person was on Ukrainian territory illegally and therefore, in compliance with all legal procedures, he was returned to the country from where he arrived,” spokesman Oleh Slobodyan said in a post on Facebook.</s>KYIV -- Mikheil Saakashvili has left Ukraine in much the same dramatic fashion that he returned in September after being stripped of Ukrainian citizenship: hauled across the Ukrainian-Polish border.

After several failed attempts to silence or lock up the stateless former Georgian president-turned-Ukrainian-opposition leader, authorities in Kyiv on February 12 finally nabbed him in -- of all places -- a Georgian restaurant and rushed him onto a chartered flight to Warsaw.

CCTV footage published overnight on Saakashvili’s YouTube channel showed more than a dozen armed and masked agents in camouflage sprinting into Kyiv’s Suluguni restaurant and scuffling with two men, one of whom appeared to be Saakashvili. Moments later, the agents are seen dragging Saakashvili out by his clothing and hair. A few hours after that, he was on Polish soil.

The operation was set in motion after a Kyiv appellate court rejected Saakashvili’s political asylum appeal last week, opening a legal way for his expulsion or extradition from Ukraine.

The country’s Border Guards Service said it chose expulsion “in compliance with all legal procedure.”

So what’s next for Saakashvili?

Saakashvili, leader of the Ukrainian New Forces Movement party, was received in Poland on the basis of an application for readmission filed by the Ukrainian State Migration Service, the Polish Border Service said.

But he has made it clear he will not ask for political asylum in the EU country, suggesting he doesn’t have plans to stay permanently, at least.

“I had a conversation with the leadership of the Interior Ministry of Poland. They called me when I arrived at the airport. The first question they asked me was whether I would ask for political asylum in Poland. I answered that I would not ask for any political salvation,” he told Ukraine’s NewsOne TV channel late on February 12 from Warsaw.

While saying the Poles had welcomed him “very warmly,” Saakashvili derided their government, saying in a separate interview broadcast live on Georgia’s Rustavi 2 channel that Warsaw “deceived” him by aiding Kyiv in expelling him, according to Interfax.

Saakashvili also said that distance wouldn’t keep him from pursuing his political fights.

“In the conditions of modern communications, the continuation of my fight against oligarchic regimes in Ukraine and Georgia is not a problem for me,” Saakashvili said on Rustavi 2. The former Georgian leader left his home country amid bitter political feuding after serving out his final term in 2013 and took on Ukrainian citizenship to become a wartime governor of Ukraine's southern Odesa region in 2015-16.

At his press conference on February 13, Saakashvili vowed that "I will be just as effective in Europe as I was in Ukraine," before directing a warning to Ukraine's leadership: "Saakashvili here will be 10 times more dangerous for you than I was in Ukraine."

Saakashvili promised that in the coming days he would "make a sort of Magnitsky List for Ukraine," a reference to the U.S. list of individuals subject to sanctions over perceived rights offenses and corruption.

But he also promised to return to Kyiv, yet again.

“I am going to return to Ukraine absolutely legally,” he said from Poland on February 13. “You have to remember that, according to Ukrainian legislation and international legislation, I am a resident of Ukraine and I have the right to stay in Ukraine.”

It seems unlikely that Saakashvili will be allowed to return before a protest on February 18 that was planned before his expulsion. Regardless of his presence, the protest will go on without its leader, Saakashvili ally David Sakvarelidze told RFE/RL, adding that he believed it would be the group’s largest yet.

A Leaderless Movement, And A Small One At That

But what does the future hold for a movement whose leader is a country away and enjoys roughly only 2 percent of popular support?

Saakashvili’s team has repeatedly dismissed polling numbers and claimed their public protests against Poroshenko and the current government are gaining momentum.

Indeed, the almost-weekly gatherings have increased in size since they began last autumn. But with less than 10,000 people at what appeared to be the largest rally on February 11, the demonstrations have been small compared to the 2013-14 Euromaidan street protests that ousted then-President Viktor Yanukovych and his government.

Authorities are banking on them winding down without Saakashvili to lead them. The February 18 protest may signal which way they are headed.

What About The Case Against Him In Ukraine?

Returning to Ukraine will be a struggle for Saakashvili. But it is worth noting that he has forced his way back into the country after essentially being barred once already.

Should he return, it’s possible he could again face detention and even prison time due to a criminal case against him.

Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko has claimed his office has a watertight case against Saakashvili that ties him to Serhiy Kurchenko, an ally of the exiled Yanukovych. Lutsenko alleged in December that Kurchenko had paid Saakashvili $500,000 to finance his political activities, and he published audio recordings that he said back the claim. RFE/RL has not authenticated the recordings.

Saakashvili has called the recordings fake and the case against him “a complete lie.” He accuses President Petro Poroshenko of orchestrating a smear campaign to rid himself of a political opponent.

Larysa Sarhan, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office, said they intend to continue investigating the case against Saakashvili, despite his departure.

“The criminal cases will not be closed. The investigations will continue,” Sarhan told Interfax-Ukraine.

Asking For A Little Help From His EU Friends

Saakashvili is banking on getting help from allies in the EU -- specifically German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has played a major role in pressing Kyiv on crucial reforms and negotiations on the conflict between government forces and Russia-backed forces in eastern Ukraine -- to help him return.

"I will be actively working with European politicians, European parliament, American politicians," he pledged on February 13.

“If the European Union, and especially Chancellor Angela Merkel, does not finally do something, Ukraine will collapse,” Saakashvili told the German tabloid Bild earlier. “Poroshenko destroys this country and he wants to remove me because I denounce corruption.”

The public response from the EU was not a particularly strong one.

“We continue to follow developments regarding Mr. Saakashvili. We expect the rule of law as well as the rights of Mr Saakashvili to be upheld,” the 28-member bloc reportedly said.

Merkel’s office has not commented since Saakashvili’s expulsion. Western diplomats in Kyiv have also been silent, suggesting they see this less as a major political struggle and more as a personal beef between Saakashvili and Poroshenko they would prefer to steer clear of.

The only comment from a U.S. diplomat appears to have come from Ambassador Ian Kelly in Tbilisi. According to Interfax, Kelly told reporters that Washington is closely monitoring the situation surrounding Saakashvili and stressed the importance of adhering to judicial procedures in his case.

As to how the situation may affect the political situation in Georgia, Kelly said the United States always prioritizes a strong and stable Georgia.

Will Georgia Send Warsaw An Extradition Request, And Would Poland Comply?

Trying to find a way back to Ukraine won’t be Saakashvili’s only challenge. He may still have to fend off extradition attempts from Georgia, where he has been convicted and sentenced in absentia to three years in prison for abusing his power in pardoning four policemen convicted of killing a banker.

Interfax news agency reported on February 12, citing a member of Georgia’s parliamentary majority in Tbilisi, that should Saakashvili decide to stay in Poland for an extended time the Georgian side would send a request for Warsaw to extradite him.

“He is not a suspect, the trial was held, the verdict has already been passed and, naturally, he is expected here,” lawmaker Alexander Kantaria said on Georgia’s Palitranews.

One option for Saakashvili is perhaps relocating to the Netherlands, where he was reportedly granted a visa in December on the basis of reuniting with family.

“He is married to a Dutch woman and if he applies for a passport it is possible under Dutch law,” Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra reportedly said in December. Saakashvili is married to Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs–Saakashvili, a Dutch native.

So far, Saakashvili has given no indication publicly that he plans to take this route. In typical fashion, he has vowed not only to return to Ukraine but to oust Poroshenko.

“He is not a president or a man, but a sneaky huckster who wants to ruin Ukraine,” Saakashvili said. “This all shows how weak they are. We will defeat them.”</s>WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili said Tuesday he would continue rallying people against the nation's authorities from abroad, following his deportation.

At a news conference in Warsaw, Saakashvili described his detention in Kiev by armed, masked men and immediate ejection to neighboring Poland as a violation of international laws.

He vowed to continue encouraging Ukrainians to stand up to authorities he considers "corrupt elites."

"We will have millions of people protesting in the streets of Ukraine," Saakashvili, who was Georgia's president before he took a government position in Ukraine, said.

Saakashvili was deported to Poland because he entered Ukraine from the neighboring country last year. Speaking in Ukrainian and English, he said he would find a way to return to Ukraine, insisting it is his country.

Saakashvili and a small crowd of supporters shoved their way through a line of guards from Poland into Ukraine in September.

"Warsaw-Kiev, Kiev-Warsaw, I have traveled that route many times and will do it again," Saakashvili said, without offering specifics.

He said he planned to visit family in the Netherlands and to seek support for his political activity by meeting European leaders and lawmakers.

Saakashvili was Georgia's president from 2004 to 2013, and later was given a governorship in Ukraine by then-ally President Petro Poroshenko. He has since criticized Poroshenko for failing to stem corruption and led anti-government protests.</s>KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili has been deported to Poland, a spokesman for Ukraine’s border service said on Monday.

“This person was on Ukrainian territory illegally and therefore, in compliance with all legal procedures, he was returned to the country from where he arrived,” spokesman Oleh Slobodyan said in a post on Facebook.</s>WARSAW (Reuters) - Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili has landed in Poland, a spokeswoman at Polish border control said on Monday.

Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia, was deported to Poland from Ukraine earlier on Monday.
Mikheil Saakashvili, leader of the opposition Movement of New Forces party, who was deported from Ukraine to Poland, relocates to the Netherlands.