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Saakashvili pledges to have no secret talks with Ukrainian authorities

He dismissed Ukrainian media reports that he had allegedly wrote a letter to President Pyotr Poroshenko "offering reconciliation"

Mikhail Saakashvili EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

Mikhail Saakashvili

© EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

KIEV, December 17. /TASS/. Mikhail Saakashvili, the former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine’s Odessa who now leads the Ukrainian opposition Movement of New Forces, pledged on Sunday he would have no secret talks with Ukraine’s current authorities.

"As long as I am alive, I have never had and will never have any talks with hucksters. I will never bargain your interests, speak about any money," he said at a protest rally in central Kiev.

He dismissed Ukrainian media reports that he had allegedly wrote a letter to President Pyotr Poroshenko "offering reconciliation." He vowed to be always intolerant to corruption and to never plunge into any behind-the-scenes deals "everyone is accustomed to." "Even when they torture or murder me," he trumpeted.

Saakashvili stressed he was ready for talks with Poroshenko or the latter’s envoys only openly, with the mass media covering them. He said he would like to focus on corruption, which, in his words, was sponsored by Poroshenko. Apart from that, he said he would discuss ways of getting rid of the power of oligarchs in Ukraine.

The rally organized by Saakashvili’s party brought together more than 2,000 people demanding a law on impeachment. Earlier in the day, the protesters marched down Kiev’s central streets.

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