Ukraine strips presidential aspirant of citizenship

Mikheil Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship, by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, leaving him stateless.

Poroshenko, whom Saakashvili, accused of perpetuating entrenched corruption in the former Soviet republic, deprived him of citizenship by decree.

"Poroshenko decided to deprive me of my citizenship in an underhanded way, while I am out of the country!" Saakashvili wrote on his Facebook page.

"I have only one citizenship, that of Ukraine and I will not be deprived of it," he said. Russian state news media reported that Saakashvili was in the US at the time.

Saakashvili, president of Georgia for nearly a decade until 2013, is wanted on charges of abuse of office, claims that he has denounced as politically motivated.

He lost his Georgian citizenship in 2015. Saakashvili had been building a new political career in Ukraine after Poroshenko appointed him governor of the Odessa region in 2015.

UCJ, UNILORIN.