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Ex-Georgian president’s wife to run for Georgian parliament

The wife of Georgia’s former President Mikhail Saakashvili criticized Georgia’s incumbent authorities for the stagnation

Mikhail Saakashvili and Sandra Roelofs EPA/IGOR KOVALENKO

Mikhail Saakashvili and Sandra Roelofs

© EPA/IGOR KOVALENKO

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TBILISI, August 19 /TASS/. Sandra Roelofs, the wife of Georgia’s former President Mikhail Saakashvili, announced on Friday that she would run for a seat in the Georgian parliament on October 8 this year.

Roelofs criticized Georgia’s incumbent authorities for the stagnation, which had hit the Georgian economy over the past few years. "Under these circumstances, I do not want to sit passively at home. Many people told me that I should not interference in politics but I am concerned with Georgia’s development. That is why I have made up my mind to run for parliament," Roelofs said at a meeting of the leaders of the ruling United National Movement party with the residents of Georgia’s Zugdidi district held in the village of Kortskheli earlier on Friday.

Sandra Roelofs was born in Terneuzen, Netherlands in December 1968. In 1991, she graduated in French and German languages from the Erasmushogeschool in Brussels and in 1993 attended courses at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg. She knows several West European languages as well as Georgian and Russian. In 1993, she met Mikhail Saakashvili in Strasbourg. They got married a year later in 1994.

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Roelfs took a Georgian citizenship in 2008 without giving up her Dutch citizenship and now has a dual Dutch-Georgian citizenship.

Roelofs and Saakashvili have two sons, Eduard (b. 1995) and Nikoloz (b. 2005). In recent years, Roelofs has been living in Tbilisi with her younger son Nikoloz. Her elder son Eduard studies in the United States.

Saakashvili was the president of Georgia in 2004-2013. He lived in the United States for some time. He received the Ukrainian citizenship in May 2015 and was appointed the governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region the same year. In 2014, Saakashvili was charged with a number of crimes in absentia. He was stripped of his Georgian citizenship in 2015.

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Ukraine may cease to exist by 2034 — Russian security official

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Civilian manufacturers ramp up drone production to 40,000 units per month

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Russian forces control more than half of Chasov Yar in DPR — expert

Andrey Marochko noted that Russian forces had "slightly advanced" in the northern and southern parts of Chasov Yar

Trump to rely on forces that brought him to power — Russian presidential aide

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Serbia will never joint anti-Russian sanctions, deputy prime minister vows

Aleksandar Vulin noted that he is "not optimistic about prospects for the United States changing its policy toward Serbia" after the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump

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