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Mikheil Saakashvili
Wikipedia (en)
Mikheil Saakashvili (Georgian: მიხეილ სააკაშვილი, Mexeil Saak’ašwili IPA: [miˈχɛil ˈsɑːkʼɑʃvili]; Ukrainian: Міхеіл Саакашвілі, Michejil Saakašwili; born 21 December 1967) is a Georgian and Ukrainian politician. He was the third President of Georgia for two consecutive terms from 25 January 2004 to 17 November 2013. From May 2015 until November 2016, Saakashvili was the Governor of Ukraine's Odessa Oblast. He is the founder and former chairman of the United National Movement party.
Involved in Georgian politics since 1995, Saakashvili became president in January 2004 after President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in the November 2003 bloodless "Rose Revolution" led by Saakashvili and his political allies, Nino Burjanadze and Zurab Zhvania. He was re-elected in the Georgian presidential election on 5 January 2008. He was widely regarded as a pro-NATO and pro-West leader who spearheaded a series of political and economic reforms. In 2010, he had a 67% approval rating despite being criticized by the opposition for his alleged authoritarian tendencies and electoral fraud.
On 2 October 2012, Saakashvili admitted his party's defeat in Georgia's parliamentary election against the Georgian Dream coalition led by the tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili. He was barred by the constitution of Georgia from seeking a third term in the 2013 presidential election, which was won by the Georgian Dream's candidate Giorgi Margvelashvili. Shortly after the election, Saakashvili left Georgia. Saakashvili is wanted by Georgia's new government on multiple criminal charges, which he decries as politically motivated.
Saakashvili energetically supported Ukraine's Euromaidan movement and the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. On 30 May 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed Saakashvili Governor of Odessa Oblast (region). He was also granted Ukrainian citizenship, and due to restrictions on dual nationality under Georgian law, was stripped of his Georgian citizenship. On 7 November 2016, Saakashvili resigned as Governor while blaming President Poroshenko personally for enabling corruption in Odessa and in Ukraine overall. Four days later he announced his goal to create a new political party called Movement of New Forces.
On 26 July 2017, Saakashvili (at the time staying in the U.S.) was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship by Petro Poroshenko, and became a stateless person. But he soon told the press he wanted to return to Ukraine to "get rid of the old corrupt elite" there.
Since December 2017 Saakashvili is suspected (by the General Prosecutor of Ukraine) of receiving financing from a "criminal group" linked to the ousted (during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution) Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Some non-Georgian sources spell Saakashvili's first name via the Russian version of the name Mikhail. In Georgia, he is commonly known as Misha, a hypocorism for Mikheil.
