Ukraine without fools

As the deprived of all citizenships, Mikhail Saakashvili broke through the Polish-Ukrainian border. Report "Medusa"

The former President of Georgia and the former head of the Odessa region Mikhail Saakashvili returned to Ukraine on September 10. In July 2017, President Petro Poroshenko announced that he was depriving him of Ukrainian citizenship; At that moment, Saakashvili was outside the country (he lost Georgian citizenship in December 2015-in connection with the receipt of a Ukrainian passport). Despite this, the politician was going to enter Ukraine by local passport; As a result, all day at different checkpoints between Poland and Ukraine did not allow him to cross the border. On the evening of September 10, Saakashvili's supporters broke through the cordon of the border guards and almost in their hands brought politics into the country. Now he faces criminal prosecution for the illegal crossing of the border. Juliana Skibitskaya journalist Juliana spent a day with activists on the Ukrainian-Polish border.

Donbass and Femen in Krakowets

At eight in the morning on September 10, supporters of Mikhail Saakashvili gathered at one of the outskirts of Lviv. The former Odessa governor in July 2017 was deprived of citizenship by the decree of President Petro Poroshenko, but considered it illegal-and announced the return.

His associates were going to go to the Krakovets checkpoint 70 kilometers from the city - to meet the former Odessa governor and the Georgian president who announced the return to Ukraine. Most people were with party flags: the Saakashvili parties “Rukh of the New Forces” (“The movement of the new forces”) and their allies from “Justice”, headed by the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine Valentin Nalyvaichenko. For many, colored ribbons were tied on their sleeves - orange, light green, pink, gold. Some said that they distinguished people from different regions, others explained that the tapes symbolize belonging to a variety of political parties. In addition to activists with flags, there were people in military uniforms-some with the stripes of the UNA-UNSO nationalist organization ( recognized in Russia extremist and prohibited ), volunteer battalions "Aidar" and "Donbass".

We arrived to meet Saakashvili even from Georgia. “There are three of us here. We stood the whole Maidan, with us, a girl, whose father imprisoned [influential Georgian politician Bidzin] Ivanishvili. We support Saakashvili, ”the head of the Georgian public organization“ Free Zone ”Koba Khabasi told Medusa.

At the border point, where activists drove out of almost a hundred cars in a column, their associates were on duty from September 9 - they defeated the tent town there and staged a scene. Saakashvili planned on September 10 to leave Warsaw to Polish Przemysl (this is 25 kilometers from Ukraine), give a press conference there with his supporters, and then go to Ukraine. In Krakowets, politics expected by noon.

The tent town is located a hundred meters from the border point itself. Nearby stood the cordon of the police, several more buses with security forces were on duty closer to the border. Due to the accumulation of people at the border crossing, huge lines formed. Locals were clearly unhappy with what was happening. "So that he [the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko] guarded the border in the east!" - the saleswoman from the store near the border post was indignant. Other residents were incomprehensibly interested in journalists, which, in fact, was happening.

In addition to activists with party flags in the tent town, there were fighters of the Donbass battalion in body armor and black uniforms - they guarded order and prevented provocations. The commander of the Donbass, People's Deputy of Ukraine Semen Semenchenko told Medusa that one company had come to the border. According to him, they arrived not in vain: the provocateurs and “ Titles ” tried to penetrate the supporters of Saakashvili into the camp, “but they saw the Donbass and unfolded”. “We are here so that everything is calm,” Semenchenko added.

Not far from the camp, the Medusa correspondent found several people who were suspected of “provocation”. They refused to communicate - closed their face and ran away. A little later, the senior group, introducing himself to Andrei, said that he had come to the border to “listen to Bredyatin what they were talking on stage,” but refused to answer other questions.

After an hour and a half of waiting, one of the activists Femen arranged an action-a stripped girl, on the chest of which the inscription in English “fools without borders” was displayed on the highway, holding the portraits of Saakashvili and President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. The protest did not last long - the activist threw portraits on the asphalt, and then the police chased after her. “Ukraine is without fools,” Saakashvili supporters from the crowd have punished the slogan.

Saakashvili's supporters tried to recapture the girl, but the security forces took her into the ring and rather rudely pushed into the car. The audience shouted to the Ganba police (“shame”); From the stage at the border post, Ukrainian folk songs sounded at that time. Priests went there to serve prayers, and representatives of the Saakashvili party - they called Petro Poroshenko a “traitor” and talked about the “third maidan”.

Failure in "Mostska"

At about an hour of the afternoon, it became known that Saakashvili had changed his plans and go by train - through the Railway Border point "Mostska" 20 kilometers from Krakowets. The politician explained his actions by considerations of security: “Our supporters gathered Krakowets, but there are also titles, including armed.” Together with him, many Ukrainian politicians got on the train - the leader of the Fatherland party Yulia Tymoshenko, People's Deputies Viktor Chumak and Sergey Vlasenko. But in the "Mostsk" it turned out that the train with Saakashvili would not be allowed into the country. Saakashvili on a speakerphone asked to leave the car, saying that the train would not go until a person is sitting in it who cannot enter Ukraine. The politician refused to go out for a long time, but the railway workers were more patient. In total, the train lingered on the territory of Poland for more than an hour and a half.

Supporters of the politician managed to move to the Mostska station and missed them. The organizers of the meeting called for to wait, but some activists were going to go for Saakashvili to Poland - and argued with those who were going to stand at the station until the end. Some noticed several minibuses with the "Tithels" near the platform. Activists immediately broke the wheels, and the young people sitting in them began to interrogate. They said that they were asked to “come and stand up”, promised to pay 700 hryvnias (1,500 rubles), but who asked them about it did not say. They later transferred them to the police.

At about five o’clock in the evening the plans changed again - Saakashvili decided to enter Ukraine through another checkpoint: “Shegini”.

Hero City Shegini

“I came here to stand to the end and I will go as much as I need it,” Meduza told one of the activists who had already visited three border posts during the day. In the "Shegina", the line of cars also stretched for a couple of kilometers. Saakashvili supporters threw their cars and walked to the border on foot. There were two groups of border guards near the transition - some in body armor and helmets, others without ammunition; On the asphalt lay the spikes, which the activists themselves later removed from the road. The organizers encouraged people in a loudspeaker. “If we allow this lawlessness, if Misha is not allowed into Ukraine, then anyone can be thrown out of the country!” - shouted David Sakvarelidze - the former prosecutor of the Odessa region and the ally of Saakashvili still in Georgia. People's Deputy Svetlana Zalishchuk (“Blok of Petro Poroshenko”) called for peaceful protest and turned to border guards with a request not to use force.

Saakashvili at that time drove up to the border from the Polish side. As soon as he entered the neutral territory, the message began to spread among the public that the border was mined. Activists met this information with a whistle and laughter. They regularly entered into disputes with the border guards, shouted "Misha, come back home!" And obscenely offended President Poroshenko. Later they began to sing the anthem of Ukraine; Some border guards who stood at the inspection point sang them.

This crush on the border lasted another one and a half hours - Saakashvili was not allowed into Ukraine at that time. Closer to eight in the evening, activists went to storm - they broke through the chain of border guards and with a cry "Do not shoot!" We ran into the neutral zone. Saakashvili who came to them was taken into the ring and shouting "Hurray!" And "Glory to Ukraine!" They spent past the border barrier and through law enforcement officers who did not particularly resist. “Shegini after today can be considered a hero city,” activists joked among themselves. People applauded and again sang the anthem of Ukraine. As later reported in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, 11 police officers and five border guards were injured during the breakthrough - they caused minor injuries, not one of whom required medical intervention.

Once in the country, Saakashvili went to Lviv, from there he was going to leave for Kyiv. Even on the border, he stated that he came to challenge the deprivation of citizenship in court - and "nothing more." The Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuri Lutsenko said that those who “illegally crossed the border” are waiting for criminal liability. The Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook that the matter was already open, violators are facing from three to seven years in prison; He called the border breakthrough "shame." President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said that the "constitutional principle of inviolability of the state border" was violated, and added that this case "does not require any political comments."

Already on September 11, it was discovered that the annulled Ukrainian passport Saakashvili remained on a certain bus on the border - according to the politician, itwas “stolen” by the Ukrainian police after the search. Saakashvili rejects the accusations of officials. “There was no breakthrough. I did not pass, they took me in my arms and transferred across the border, ”he said at a press conference in Lviv. “This did the people of Ukraine.”

Juliana Skibitskaya , Lviv region