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Saakashvili deported; Dutch minister admits lie
Summary
Two political stories on 12 February 2018 touched Ukraine, one involving a deportation to Poland and the other a Dutch minister's admission.
What happened on 12 February 2018 that mattered for Ukraine and its neighbours? Two political developments stand out.
In Kyiv, Mikheil Saakashvili, leader of the opposition Movement of New Forces party, was detained by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and deported from Ukraine to Poland. President Petro Poroshenko had stripped him of Ukrainian citizenship on 26 July 2017.
The same day, in the Netherlands, Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra admitted lying about attending a meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2006. Zijlstra had said Putin mentioned plans to expand Russia to include Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states. He now said he had not been present and had borrowed the story from a source.
The two events were unconnected, but both involved public figures and the politics of the region on a single day.
