Saakashvili says Georgia will OK citizenship requests of everyone
By Nazrin Gadimova
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, shortly before the expiration of his powers, is ready to grant Georgian citizenship to everyone in a simplified manner, a statement posted on Saakashvili's page in the social network on November 5 reads.
Earlier, Head of the Presidential Administration Andro Barnov called on the Georgian government to review the policy of granting Georgian citizenship and abandon isolationism.
According to Barnov, a lot of people, whose applications for the Georgian citizenship were refused, applied to the presidential administration.
"We have decided to give these people citizenship of our country on the simplified rules, so the country will be maximally integrated with the outside world," the statement read.
Moreover, the Georgian citizenship will be granted to foreign businessmen who have been working in Georgia for a long time, as well as to businessmen who intend to invest in the country.
According to the statement, everyone who wants to receive Georgian citizenship can apply to the presidential administration on weekdays from 10:00 to 18:00.
Saakashvili's powers expire on November 17 - after the inauguration of Giorgi Margvelashvili, who won the 27 October presidential elections. It was the sixth presidential election after Georgia gained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991. Mikheil Saakashvili could not run for re-election because of the two-term limit in the Constitution.
Upon the inauguration of a new president in 2013, a series of constitutional amendments passed in the parliament of Georgia from 2010 to 2013 will go into effect. The amendments envisage significant reduction of the president's powers in favor of the prime minister.