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Ukrainian president comes to Saakashvili's defense

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the dispute between Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Odessa Governor Mikhail Saakashvili at the National Council for Reform as a “disgraceful incident.”

“In the National Council—the same as anywhere else—abusive language and insults are unacceptable, particularly when they have a racist overtone that addresses a person's national dignity, questions his Ukrainian patriotism, and suggests the person 'clear out from Ukraine,'” said Poroshenko in a statement. 

Poroshenko went on to say, “I invited an international team of reformers to Ukraine, who have already succeeded in becoming truly Ukrainian, and not simply in their passports, but in spirit. I do not regret making this decision. On the other hand, the fight with corruption is not show business. I would have it that neither civil servants nor members of parliament take part in such ‘spectacles.’”

President of Ukraine

At a December 10 meeting of the National Council for Reform, during a verbal exchange, Arsen Avakov threw water in the face of Mikhail Saakashvili and told him to get out of Ukraine. Parliamentary Deputy Sergei Leshchenko referred to an official session where Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk implied that Saakashvili was merely “here today but gone tomorrow” and also said he should get out of Ukraine. “To this, Saakashvili said he was also a Ukrainian citizen. However, in comparison to Yatsenyuk, he had not plundered the country,” said the Deputy.

After the session, Saakashvili said Avakov maintained “informal paramilitary groups” and financed them with proceeds from corruption. The Odessa governor also accused Yatsenyuk of corruption.

For more on this story, see: Ukraine’s interior minister vs. Odessa’s governor: Footage of the fight between Arsen Avakov and Mikheil Saakashvili hits the Web

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