Utopia Talk / Politics / Former Georgia president Saakashvili

swordtail Anarchist Prime	Tue Dec 05 09:17:44 Former Georgia president Saakashvili arrested in Kyiv in dramatic rooftop scene Nataliya Vasilyeva, The Associated Press Published Tuesday, December 5, 2017 7:34AM EST Last Updated Tuesday, December 5, 2017 8:07AM EST MOSCOW -- Riot police were deployed to the streets of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv Tuesday amid a stand-off with hundreds of protesters who had blocked a police van carrying an arrested politician. Ukraine's intelligence agency SBU on Tuesday detained the former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, who has emerged as an anti-corruption campaigner in his new country. Mikheil Saakashvili climbed onto the roof of his home in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, drawing a crowd of supporters below, and reportedly threatened to jump off, Ukrainian media reported. SBU officers followed him onto the roof, detained him and led him out to a waiting van. However several hundred supporters blocked the road and surrounded the van, refusing to let it drive off. Two hours after Saakashvili entered the van, it was still at a standstill as the crowd chanted "Kyiv, rise up!" Footage from the scene showed protesters picking up cobblestones and construction rubble to build barricades. National Guard riot police were dispatched to help the SBU release the van but they soon found themselves surrounded by a crowd of protesters. Saakashvili is arguably Ukraine's most popular opposition politician and a challenge to President Petro Poroshenko, who appointed him as governor of Ukraine's Odesa region before the two fell out. Saakashvili served as Georgia's president for nearly a decade before he was termed out of the office and left the country in 2013. He resigned as Odesa governor in 2016, complaining that his efforts to root out corruption suffered official obstruction. Poroshenko revoked Saakashvili's citizenship in July while he was out of the country. Saakashvili forced his way across Ukraine's border with Poland last month. Saakashvili's stand-off with Poroshenko ignited long-simmering popular discontent with the slow pace of Poroshenko's much-promised reforms. The Security Service said in a statement that Saakashvili is facing a criminal investigation for "assisting members of criminal organizations or hiding their criminal activities." Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko said in a televised briefing later in the day that Saakashvili is suspected of colluding with Ukrainian businessmen with ties to Russian intelligence in order to topple Poroshenko. http://www...amatic-rooftop-scene-1.3707402
swordtail Anarchist Prime	Tue Dec 05 11:17:55 Saakashvili freed by supporters from police van in Kiev, calls to oust President Poroshenko http://www...hvili-supporters-protest-kiev/
	show deleted posts

Your Name:
Your Password:
Your Message: