Saakashvili, Mikheil << sah ah kahsh VEE lee, MEE kah eel >> (1967-…), was president of the European nation of Georgia from 2004 to 2013. He took office after protesters forced the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze. Saakashvili’s rise to power became known as the “Rose Revolution” because the protesters carried roses as a symbol of nonviolence.
Mikheil Saakashvili was born on Dec. 21, 1967, in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital. He graduated from the Institute of International Relations at the Taras Shevchenko State University of Kiev (now the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) in Kyiv, Ukraine, before receiving a master’s degree in law from Columbia University in New York City in 1994.
Saakashvili returned to Georgia and was elected to Parliament in 1995. He soon became head of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional, Legal Issues and Legal Affairs. Saakashvili entered Shevardnadze’s cabinet as justice minister in 2000. In 2001, however, Saakashvili resigned, citing government corruption. He then formed the opposition National Movement (now the United National Movement).
Saakashvili ran for Parliament in November 2003. Poll results showed Shevardnadze’s ruling coalition defeating United National, but the elections were tainted by allegations of widespread fraud. Following the elections, Saakashvili helped lead peaceful protests in Tbilisi calling for Shevardnadze’s resignation. Facing increasing protests, Shevardnadze stepped down. In presidential elections held in January 2004, Saakashvili won a landslide victory. He was reelected in 2008. During Saakashvili’s presidency, tensions between Georgia and Russia escalated. The two nations clashed in 2008 over South Ossetia, a region in north-central Georgia.
Saakashvili left Georgia after his presidency ended in 2013. His political opponents accused him of abusing his power as president. Saakashvili denied these charges and claimed that they were politically motivated. In 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko granted Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship and appointed him governor of the Ukrainian oblast (region) of Odesa. When he was granted Ukrainian citizenship, Saakashvili lost his Georgian citizenship. Saakashvili stepped down as Odesa’s governor in 2016 after accusing Poroshenko’s government of refusing to support progressive reforms and crack down on corruption. In 2017, Saakashvili formed an opposition political party in Ukraine called the Movement of New Forces.
Later that year, while Saakashvili was traveling abroad, Poroshenko stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship. Saakashvili returned to Ukraine and requested political asylum (shelter and protection) there. At the time, he was facing various criminal charges in Georgia. In 2018, a Georgian court found him guilty of abuse of power and sentenced him in absentia (while absent) to three years in prison. Saakashvili was arrested and deported from Ukraine to Poland. He returned to Ukraine in 2019, after Volodymyr Zelensky, the newly elected Ukrainian president, restored Saakashvili’s citizenship. In 2020, Zelensky appointed Saakashvili to lead a committee reforming Ukraine’s business and trade policies.
Saakashvili was arrested again in Georgia in 2021, after he returned there to rally support for his opposition party ahead of upcoming national municipal elections. His supporters protested and called for his release. Government authorities brought him to trial on a new charge of excess use of force against an opposition protest in 2007. Saakashvili claimed the charge was politically motivated.
