"I have neither a plan nor a wish to do so and I do not plan to take any steps toward it [requesting political asylum or taking up another citizenship]. Poroshenko’s decision was an illegal step of a scared man, he violated the constitution of Ukraine and its international commitments. I am a citizen of Ukraine regardless of what documents were signed," Saakashvili said in an interview with the Rustavi 2 channel.
Saakashvili left Georgia in November 2013, after Giorgi Margvelashvili became the country's president. In July 2014, the prosecutor's office in Georgia pressed criminal charges against the ex-president, accusing him of embezzling $5 million from the state coffers to use for personal purposes. In 2015, Saakashvili was stripped of his Georgian citizenship after receiving a Ukrainian passport.
