TBILISI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2020) Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Monday welcomed the decision of opposition party United National Movement to nominate him for the post of prime minister and said he was ready to occupy the position for two years at most.
Earlier in the day, United National Movement leader Grigol Vashadze said that the opposition party and opposition movement Strength is in Unity would nominate Saakashvili for the post if they were victorious in the parliamentary elections scheduled for late October.
"[United] National Movement and a number of other citizens asked me to become the prime minister of Georgia. I thought about it, and I want to say that I am ready to take on this function, but not to come to power and not because I miss power ... I will not be the prime minister for a full term, but for two years at most because these two years will be enough to take Georgia out of the swamp and move forward quickly," Saakashvili told, as aired by Mtavari broadcaster.
The politician also said that he would return to Georgia when his arrival does not cause unrest and confrontation in the country, and he could come to power peacefully.
Saakashvili served as the president of Georgia from 2004-2013. In 2013, he fled the country after being confronted with criminal prosecution by the new authorities and entered Ukrainian politics in the spring of 2015, when then-President Petro Poroshenko granted him citizenship and appointed him the governor of the Black Sea coastal region of Odessa.
In October 2016, Poroshenko claimed that Saakashvili had failed to observe his pledges about the region's development and fired him. Saakashvili was eventually stripped of Ukrainian citizenship and exiled to Poland. Current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reinstated his citizenship in May 2019 and let him return to Ukraine and appointed him as an adviser for reforms.
In late August, Saakashvili posted a video address on Facebook, in which he thanked Ukraine for being his "second home" and said that it was time to return to his homeland. He mentioned that he was ready to solve past mistakes and serve his country. Georgian Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani told reporters commenting on this address that the ex-president would be detained at the border if he tried to return to the country.
