Mikheil "Misha" Saakashvili (born 21 December 1967) is a Georgian-Ukrainian politician. He was the third president of Georgia for two consecutive terms from January 2004 to November 2013, with a break from November 2007 to January 2008 after he stepped down following anti-government demonstrations and ahead of an early presidential election. He is the founder and former chairman of Georgia's United National Movement party. From May 2015 until November 2016, Saakashvili was the governor of Ukraine's Odesa Oblast.
A jurist by occupation, Saakashvili entered Georgian politics in 1995 as a member of Parliament and Minister of Justice under President Eduard Shevardnadze. He then founded the opposition United National Movement party. In 2003, as a leading opposition figure, he accused the government of rigging the 2003 Georgian parliamentary election, triggering mass street protests and President Shevardnadze's ouster in the bloodless Rose Revolution. Saakashvili's key role in the protests led to his election as president in 2004. He was reelected in 2008. However, his party lost the 2012 Georgian parliamentary election. Term limits meant he could not stand again, and an opposition candidate, nominated by Bidzina Ivanishvili and Coalition Georgian Dream, Giorgi Margvelashvili, won the 2013 presidential election.