Ukraine’s President Sidelines Opponent by Stripping His Citizenship<br />After the 2014 revolution overthrew a pro-Russian president in Ukraine, Mr. Saakashvili<br />and about a dozen other Georgian officials with experience rooting out corruption moved to Ukraine to join the new government.<br />By ANDREW E. KRAMERJULY 27, 2017<br />MOSCOW — Once they were prominent allies in opposing the Kremlin: President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine<br />and the former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili.<br />Mr. Saakashvili responded in a post on his Facebook page, saying<br />that Mr. Poroshenko had "crossed a red line" with the decree, and by failing to address corruption.<br />But they have now fallen out so badly that on Wednesday, Mr. Poroshenko stripped Mr. Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship, leaving him stateless.<br />The bureau, which gained notice last summer when it revealed off-the-books payments to President Trump’s former<br />campaign chairman, Paul J. Manafort, has been locked in a power struggle with the Poroshenko administration.<br />To comply with Ukrainian law on government service, they had to renounce their Georgian citizenship and accept Ukrainian citizenship.<br />And in the ultimate insult for opponents of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin,<br />Mr. Saakashvili suggested that Mr. Poroshenko might have to flee to Russia.
