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Saakashvili supporters storm Kiev arts center

Sunday, 17 December 2017 4:19 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 17 December 2017 5:32 PM ]

Supporters of former Georgian president and Ukrainian opposition figure Mikheil Saakashvili shout slogans during a protest march in Kiev, Ukraine December 17, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

Several hundred protesters led by former Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili stormed Kiev's performing arts center on Sunday, some hurling rocks, smoke bombs and firecrackers at the windows and doors.

Police who surrounded the building used fire extinguishers against the demonstrators who attacked the October Palace during an afternoon performance by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

A few made it into the building, but they did not disrupt the concert.

"Ukraine's ministry of internal affairs asks the protesters not to commit provocations, not seize the building and not to endanger the safety of children," ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko wrote on Twitter.

Saakashvili, 49, who entered Ukrainian politics after serving as president of Georgia, was arrested last week in Kiev, accused of trying to stage a Russia-sponsored coup, but a court released him for the duration of the probe.

"You have to show them that you are brave, but very, very calm," Saakashvili told the crowd. "I will stand by you to the very end."

Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili (C) speaks to journalists and supporters outside of the courthouse in Kiev on December 11, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Saakashvili told journalists after the court hearing last week that he planned to continue his political activities with the goal of a transfer of power, accusing the Ukrainian authorities of corruption and "usurping power."

He is under investigation for alleged cooperation with Russia-linked "criminal groups" and has denounced his prosecution as an attempt to remove him from public activities.

Saakashvili is also wanted in his native Georgia for alleged abuse of power.

He spearheaded a pro-Western "Rose Revolution" in the country in 2003 and fought a disastrous war with Russia five years later that eventually prompted him to flee the Caucasus nation.

Saakashvili returned to the spotlight as a vocal champion of the three-month street uprising in Kiev that toppled a Moscow-backed government in 2014 and turned Ukraine on a pro-EU course.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko rewarded Saakashvili for his efforts by appointing him governor of the important Black Sea region of Odessa in 2015 before the two men fell out and his Ukrainian passport was annulled.

(Source: Agencies)

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