Mikhail Saakashvili returned to Georgia for the first time in eight years. He was immediately detained (or almost immediately). Main

The ex-president of the country Mikhail Saakashvili was detained in Georgia . Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that law enforcement agencies were aware of Saakashvili from Ukraine to Georgia and controlled its movements. It is reported that the former president was detained in the office of his party "Unified National Movement" in Tbilisi. He was sent to prison in the city of Rustavi near Tbilisi. The media published a video with a smiling Saakashvili in handcuffs.

At the end of September, Saakashvili promised to return to Georgia after eight years of absence . On the morning of October 1, he said that he was already in the country. However, the Georgian Ministry of the Interior said that the former president did not cross the state border, and in the ruling party of Georgia, Georgian Dream, claimed that Saakashvili was still in Ukraine, at the resort of Truskavets. In turn, a member of the “Unified National Movement” Ekaterina Herheulidze said that Saakashvili arrived in Georgia four days ago.

Before the detention, Saakashvili posted a video where he said: "Probably, they will be detained in Tbilisi now, but I'm not afraid of anything." He added that he “came to help”, and called for participating in the municipal elections in Georgia on October 2. If the ruling party "Georgian Dream" loses to them, new elections to the parliament can be assigned to the country.

The Georgian ambassador was called to the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine. Vladimir Zelensky demanded explanations due to the detention of Saakashvili , said press secretary of Ukrainian president Sergey Nikiforov. According to him, Zelensky is "concerned about such news and the tone of statements that sound in Georgia regarding the possible development of the situation." Saakashvili - a citizen of Ukraine, he refused Georgian citizenship in 2015, before the appointment of the head of the Odessa region.

The Georgian authorities opened a new criminal case against Saakashvili - about the illegal crossing of the border. Previously, he became a defendant in four more criminal cases in Georgia. For two of them - the beating and murder - sentences were sentenced in 2018. Two more cases - about the defeat of the Imady TV channel and the embezzlement of funds of the special state security service - are still being considered in court. Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili excluded the possibility of pardon Saakashvili.

Mikhail Saakashvili was the president of Georgia in 2004-2013 , after which he left the country. In 2015, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko provided him with Ukrainian citizenship and appointed him the head of the Odessa region. In 2017, after the conflict with Poroshenko, Saakashvili was deprived of citizenship and expelled outside the country. In 2019, the new president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky returned Saakashvili citizenship. He arrived in Ukraine again and in 2020 headed the Executive Committee of the National Council of Reforms.

Olga Korelina