KIEV, December 3. /TASS/. Mikhail Saakashvili, the former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine’s Odessa who now leads the Ukrainian opposition Movement of New Forces, has called on Ukrainians to oust the dictatorship of oligarchs and establish a "dictatorship of the middle class" instead, a TASS correspondent reported from a rally in central Kiev on Sunday.
"I suggest we don’t wait for another 25 years and oust the dictatorship of oligarchs to establish a dictatorship of the middle class," he said. In his words, the power of oligarchs is Ukraine’s biggest problem as it is a breeding ground for corruption. Ukraine’s President Pyotr Poroshenko is an oligarch and hence he is Ukraine’s enemy, he stressed.
"Our enemy is the power of oligarchs, corruption stems from the power of oligarchs, it is the enemy of the middle class. Our enemy is Poroshneko as a representative of the power of oligarchs. They are using us and Ukraine’s riches. Away with them," Saakashvili trumpeted and called "to seize oligarchs’ money as it is fair."
"They are robbers who took our money and you all are victims. We will not let them flee with their loot. We will ask each one of them why they have been robbing us," he said.
According to Saakashvili, the key demand of the protesters is a law on impeachment to have the head of state step down. "Impeachment is a possibility to avoid a revolution. We are for peaceful revolution," he stressed and promised to set up a "central committee on impeachment" and its regional structures.
He called on the protesters to gather for another rally in central Kiev on December 10. "We are gathering for peaceful rallies. We are saying that if you don’t pass the laws we insist on this week, we will be here again not to let the president to his office," Saakashvili said, adding that if the authorities "remove" him, obviously meaning his possible extradition to Georgia, the Ukrainians must continue protests.
Saakashvili’s party organized a March for Impeachment in central Kiev on Sunday. Local police said it had brought together about 2,500 protesters who marched along Kiev’s central streets demanding a law on impeachment be passed.
On October 17, protesters camped outside the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, demanding the adoption of laws on stripping MPs of immunity, setting up an anti-corruption tribunal, amending the election legislation, and the law on impeaching the president.
On October 20, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko said that the real goal of the organizers of protests is to destabilize the situation in Ukraine. Furthermore, according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko, Saakashvili and his supporters are plotting a state coup and receive financing from abroad.
Saakashvili promised earlier to organize rallies in front of the Verkhovna Rada each Sunday.