Polish “tour” of stateless Saakashvili: What Poroshenko is afraid of
The Polish press perceives Saakashvili, who unexpectedly arrived in Warsaw, more like a showman. But in Ukraine they are seriously afraid of his return and are strengthening control on the border with Poland, he says in the author’s column for "PolitNavigator" Western Ukrainian political scientist Oleg Havich.
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Saakashvili flew to Warsaw on August 4 directly from the United States, where he was caught by the news of the deprivation of Ukrainian citizenship. Upon arrival, he stated that the United States and Poland had not invalidated his Ukrainian passport. “I left America as usual, no one recognizes the cancellation of my passport. I went through passport control, just like I always went through passport control in Poland. I entered without any problems, I was invited to events by Polish leaders,” Saakashvili flaunted.
He did take part in events dedicated to the anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Uprising, but the main purpose of the visit to Poland is an attempt to gain support from the ruling Law and Justice party in the country and personally from the “shadow president” Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
In an interview with the RMF FM portal, Saakashvili said that he had already met with several Seimas deputies from this party, including Deputy Speaker Terletsky. The ex-president of Georgia admitted that he does not have a meeting planned with Kaczynski, but emphasized that they have established “very good contacts” and especially noted that he considers the Smolensk disaster “a special plan of the Russians to get rid of Lech Kaczynski.”
In addition, Saakashvili hinted that he was ready to abandon the glorification of Bandera and the UPA, which are now the cornerstones of the ideology of the Ukrainian regime, and was ready for a discussion about the complex historical past: “We are a new generation of Ukrainian politicians who are friendly. Moreover, we do not have a Soviet mentality, we definitely have a more rational view of reality. And I think this is hope for our two countries."
In a prime-time interview with the Polish TV channel Respublika, Saakashvili showered his compliments on Poland. He stated that Poland is a model for countries with difficult internal situations, such as Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic and Caucasus countries. According to the politician, relations between these countries and Western Europe would be much more difficult without the support of Poland. “Poland has a unique historical experience of communicating with Russians. When the Poles are together with the Ukrainians, Russia’s energy ambitions will be destroyed,” Saakashvili said.
The experienced populist knew how to play to the Polish ambition: “The problem is that Germany and France continue to perceive you as a small country that comes to the table without the right to its own opinion. And the big players sit at this table, and only they have the right to vote. When Poland starts talking, it immediately sounds: “Nobody gave you the right to vote!” These world players take into account only Germany and France, perhaps also Spain and Italy, but other countries take into account.”
According to him, it is worth returning to the concept of the Intermarium, where Poland will be the leader.
However, it is worth noting that the local press was much more interested not in Saakashvili’s expressive statements, but in official Tbilisi’s appeal to Warsaw demanding the extradition of the ex-president of Georgia. One of the most popular portals “Virtual Poland” published this news under the heading “Will Mikheil Saakashvili be detained?” .
In Warsaw, Saakashvili also said that he plans to visit “other European cities” in the near future, but did not specify either the countries or the time of these visits. It is possible that these will not so much be meetings with politicians, but paid lectures that are familiar to the West, which are a form of political corruption accepted here.
If these plans come true, we should expect demands for his extradition from other European countries, because on July 31, Justice Minister Tea Tsukuliani announced that Georgia would appeal on this issue to all countries where Saakashvili appears.
During the Polish voyage, Saakashvili, as the leader of the Ukrainian party “Rukh of New Forces,” repeatedly emphasized that he was not abandoning his plans to reform Ukraine and intended to continue his activities as a Ukrainian politician, but did not disclose details of how he wanted to do this without Ukrainian citizenship.
But in Ukraine itself they are preparing very seriously for possible attempts by Saakashvili to break into the country. According to a member of the Ukrainian parliament and one of Saakashvili’s associates, Yuriy Derevyanko, who was returning to his native Ivano-Frankivsk from a meeting with the party leader in Warsaw, on the night of August 4-5, border service officers blocked traffic through the Krakovets border checkpoint on the border with Poland ... with the aim of searching for Saakashvili.
“The border guards gave the command “Barrier”, reporting that a person had run away! This means stopping the release and entry of vehicles from and to the border point. They used a special device to block the movement of cars. Contrary to the law, my car, as a people’s deputy, was searched, looking for Mikhail... in the trunk. After this, they artificially created chaos in the queue and blocked the ring with buses. And although the checkpoint itself was empty, people were forced to stand in a queue of many kilometers. There are many SBU officers everywhere, and cars of border guards are combing the fields around the customs in search of Mikheil Saakashvili,” Derevianko reported the details of the “special operation.”
A fellow party member of the ex-governor of Odessa region publicly appealed to Petro Poroshenko with a request to immediately stop mocking citizens of Ukraine and foreigners, since “Mikheil Saakashvili will publicly announce the day of his return to Ukraine, which he has repeatedly stated.”
This is a rare case when a Ukrainian politician can be trusted: until August 24, when the new political season starts in Ukraine, Saakashvili has nothing to do in this country. But his appearance in the retinue of one of the leaders of NATO countries, who, together with Poroshenko, will host a military parade in Kyiv on the occasion of Ukraine’s Independence Day, is quite realistic.
True, it will most likely not be Polish President Andrzej Duda, but Lithuanian Dalia Grybauskaite, who through diplomatic channels expressed to Poroshenko her dissatisfaction with Saakashvili’s deprivation of Ukrainian citizenship.
Moreover, on August 5, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius, during an official briefing, appealed to Petro Poroshenko to give Saakashvili the opportunity to defend his rights in a Ukrainian court. Linkevicius also assured that Lithuania intends to support Ukraine, but at the same time demands that the rights of the “opposition” not be limited. “It is especially important that conditions are created for the opposition in the fight against corruption,” Linkevicius added.
In fact, the main intrigue in this whole situation is whether the position of the authorities of Poland and Lithuania is an initiative, or is it coordinated with Washington.
It depends on this whether the stateless Saakashvili’s “tour” will turn into a triumphant return to the Ukrainian political scene - or whether he will join the list of retired American puppets who give lectures at provincial universities in the West.
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