Mikheil Saakashvili

Mikheil Saakashvili (/ˌsɑːkəʃˈviːli/; born 21 December 1967) is a Georgian and Ukrainian politician and jurist. He was the third president of Georgia for two consecutive terms from 25 January 2004 to 17 November 2013. He is the founder and former chairman of Georgia's United National Movement party. From May 2015 until November 2016, Saakashvili was the governor of Ukraine's Odesa Oblast. After resigning, he was temporarily exiled, but returned in 2019 under a new President. Saakashvili returned to Georgia in 2021, and has been imprisoned there since then.

Saakashvili entered Georgian politics in 1995 as a member of parliament and Minister of Justice under President Eduard Shevardnadze. He then founded the opposition United National Movement party. In 2003, as a leading opposition figure, he accused the government of rigging the 2003 Georgian parliamentary election, triggering mass street protests and President Shevardnadze's ouster in the bloodless Rose Revolution. Saakashvili's key role in the protests led to his election as President in 2004. He was reelected in 2008. However, his party lost the 2012 Georgian parliamentary election. Term limits meant he could not stand again, and an opposition candidate won the 2013 presidential election.

As president, Saakashvili oversaw far-reaching reforms. His government fired and replaced the entire police force, hoping to root out corruption, and pursued a zero-tolerance policy towards crime. Its neoliberal economic policy abolished various taxes, lowered corporate income tax from 20% to 15% and dividend tax from 10% to 5%. Several ministries were abolished and 60,000 civil servants dismissed, slashing government spending, although the military budget rose to 9.2% of GDP by 2007. In 2009, Forbes ranked Georgia's tax burden as the fourth lowest in the world.[9] GDP grew 70% between 2003 and 2013. Per-capita income roughly tripled, but by 2013 about a quarter of the population was still below the poverty line, even as international perceptions emphasized business-friendliness and reduced corruption.

The Abkhazian and Ossetian conflicts escalated in 2008. Russia officially announced its support for separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Saakashvili led Georgia through the five-day 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Georgia lost control of the disputed territories, and Russia recognized their independence. Georgia responded by breaking off diplomatic relations.

Saakashvili's government responded violently to mass street demonstrations in 2007, triggered by the detention of politician Irakli Okruashvili; in 2009 led by Salome Zourabichvili, Nino Burjanadze, David Gamkrelidze and Eka Beselia; and in 2011, led again by Burjanadze. Saakashvili was embroiled in scandals and accused of being behind police brutality, such as the beating of opposition politician Valery Gelashvili, the murder of Sandro Girgvliani, and systemic torture and rape in the Georgian prison system.

In late 2013, ex-President Saakashvili left Georgia. In 2014, the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia filed criminal charges against him. In 2018, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced him in absentia to six years in prison for ordering the beating of Valery Gelashvili and pardoning by prior agreement the individuals tried for Sandro Girgvliani's murder. Saakashvili continued to manage his party from abroad while accusing the Georgian government of using the legal system for political retribution.

Saakashvili supported Ukraine's Euromaidan movement and the Revolution of Dignity. On 30 May 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appointed him Governor of Odesa Oblast. He accepted Ukrainian citizenship, thereby forfeiting his Georgian citizenship under Georgian law.  On November 7th 2016, Saakashvili announced his resignation as governor while blaming Poroshenko personally for enabling corruption in Odesa and in Ukraine generally. Four days later, he launched a new Ukrainian political party called Movement of New Forces.

In July 2017, Saakashvili (then visiting the US) was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship by President Poroshenko, and became stateless. He reentered Ukraine, but was arrested in February 2018 and deported. He was granted permanent residency in the Netherlands. In May 2019, he returned to Ukraine after newly-elected President Volodymyr Zelenskyy restored his citizenship. Zelenskyy appointed Saakashvili to lead Ukraine's National Reform Council in May 2020.

In October 2021, Saakashvili announced his return to Georgia after an eight-year absence. Later the same day Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced that he had been arrested in Tbilisi. Investigators alleged he had entered Georgia illegally, bypassing the customs control. He was imprisoned in a penitentiary in Rustavi.

In 2021, he began serving the six-year in absentia prison sentence imposed in 2018. President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili stated that she would "never" pardon Saakashvili. He was often transferred to and from hospital for health reasons, and since May 2022 has been treated in a civilian clinic in Tbilisi

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