© Gleb Garanich / ReutersSupporters of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili march through the city centre during a rally in Kiev, Ukraine December 10, 2017
Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Kiev to demand the impeachment of President Petro Poroshenko, as well as the release of former Georgian president turned Ukrainian opposition leader, Mikhail Saakashvili.Chanting
"Free Misha!" and "Poroshenko should resign!", the protesters made their way to the Maidan square of the capital, scene of the 2013-14 unrest which brought about the coup and subsequently the civil war in the east. Among the demonstrators was Saakashvili's wife, Sandra Roelofs.
"They have already crossed the red line," Roelofs told the crowd. "You don't need to put your opponents in jail, no. You need to show that you too can make reforms, that you too want what's good for the people. But we do not see this. So get up, Kiev, Ukraine, get up!"
In a
post on Facebook, the Movement of New Forces - the political party headed by Saakashvili - claimed some fifty thousand Ukrainians attended the rally.
Police, though, put the figure closer to 2,500, while the UNIAN news agency
reported 2,000 supporters.
Riot police were on hand, but the march proceeded
peacefully, with only a few demonstrators stopping to hurl snowballs at the windows of Poroshenko's chocolate business as they passed by.
The red and black flags of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA were spotted at the rally. Under leader Stepan Bandera, the UPA fought a guerilla war against the Soviets in World War II, collaborating with the Nazis and committing mass atrocities against Poles and Jews. Despite these war crimes, Bandera and his men are seen as heroic freedom fighters by modern-day Ukrainian nationalists.
Saakashvili is being held at a pretrial detention center of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), accused of assisting a criminal organization. Saakashvili claims he's being set up because of his political opposition to Poroshenko and has gone on a hunger strike in protest.
Saakashvili led the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and won some international praise for his anti-corruption reforms,
but fell from grace after launching the war against Abkhazia and South Ossetia, corruption charges and his targeting of political rivals. After fleeing Georgia, Saakashvili turned his attention to the events in Ukraine, where he was granted Ukrainian citizenship by Poroshenko and appointed governor of Odessa in 2015. But it wasn't long before the two men were on collision course, with Saakashvili accusing Poroshenko of corruption and Poroshenko subsequently revoking Saakashvili's citizenship. The stateless Saakashvili, however, re-entered Ukraine on foot with his loyal followers overwhelming the border guards standing on the frontier with Poland.
The former Georgian president was arrested Tuesday after a dramatic stand-off with Ukrainian police in which he threatened to jump off the roof of a five-story building. Officers dragged him away, but with the help of his supporters, he escaped. He was re-arrested Friday.
Comment: Another
source adds:
Protestors this weekend had four main demands: impeach Poroshenko, release Saakashvili, set up an independent anti-corruption court that would try cases brought by NABU [the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine], and sack Prosecutor General and close Poroshenko ally Yuriy Lutsenko, who has been the tool used by the president in his campaign against Saakashvili.
You have to feel sorry for the people of the Ukraine. First, they have been suffering under a very corrupt government for a very long time. Then, they were manipulated into supporting the
Western-sponsored coup of their democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych just as he was about to turn down a bad deal with the EU and begin working with Russia.
Then they get stuck the corrupt and genocidal idiot President Petro Poroshenko, and the economic and social conditions deteriorate even more drastically. And now, in desperation, some of them are looking to
Mikhail Saakashvili - who can't even go back to his his country of origin because he's wanted for corruption charges, and who astute American pundit
Patrick Buchanan has rightly called a "nutball" and tool of US neocons.
The Ukrainians need some sane strong leadership, and fast!
Comment: Another source adds: You have to feel sorry for the people of the Ukraine. First, they have been suffering under a very corrupt government for a very long time. Then, they were manipulated into supporting the Western-sponsored coup of their democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych just as he was about to turn down a bad deal with the EU and begin working with Russia. Then they get stuck the corrupt and genocidal idiot President Petro Poroshenko, and the economic and social conditions deteriorate even more drastically. And now, in desperation, some of them are looking to Mikhail Saakashvili - who can't even go back to his his country of origin because he's wanted for corruption charges, and who astute American pundit Patrick Buchanan has rightly called a "nutball" and tool of US neocons.
The Ukrainians need some sane strong leadership, and fast!