Criminal probe launched after Saakashvili crosses border:
By RFE/RL
Police in Ukraine say they have launched a criminal investigation after Mikheil Saakashvili defied the authorities and returned to the country that stripped him of citizenship.
Backed by hundreds of supporters, Saakashvili, the ex-president of Georgia and former governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, made his way from Poland into Ukraine on September 10, breaking through a corridor of Ukrainian border guards.
The incident came after a day of drama and repeatedly changing travel plans by Saakashvili.
Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko said late on September 10 that charges would be pursued against the organizers of Saakashvili's unauthorized entry.
A statement by police in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where Saakashvili spent the night, said on September 11 that regional police were investigating "events near the [Medyka]-Shehyni checkpoint along the Ukrainian-Polish border."
The statement did not name Saakashvili, but said those found guilty of illegally crossing the border could face up to five years in prison.
Writing on his Facebook page on September 11, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman called the incident an "attack" on Ukraine's statehood.
Saakashvili claims to have UN recognition as being "stateless" and says he wants to challenge the revocation of his citizenship at a court in Ukraine.
Besides running the risk of being arrested for illegally crossing into Ukraine, Saakashvili also faces possible extradition to Georgia where he is wanted on charges of misappropriating property and abusing his office during his nine years as Georgia's president. Saakashvili says those charges are politically motivated.
Saakashvili lost his Georgian citizenship in 2015 when he was granted Ukrainian citizenship in order to take up Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's offer to become governor of the Black Sea region of Odesa. Tbilisi does not allow dual citizenship.
Saakashvili resigned from the Odesa governor's post in November 2016, complaining he had been blocked from carrying out reforms.
In July, Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship amid a falling out of the two former allies. (w/Interfax, TASS)