Mikhail Saakashvili, former president of Georgia | Zurab Kurtsikidze/EPA Ex-Georgian President Saakashvili applies for asylum in Ukraine Mikheil Saakashvili seeks refuge despite being barred from Ukraine by former friend Petro Poroshenko.

Mikheil Saakashvili, former president of Georgia, applied for political asylum in Ukraine, despite having his Ukrainian citizenship revoked earlier this year, Spiegel reported.

Saakashvili — who became a Ukrainian citizen two years ago and was made governor of the Odessa region, only to have his citizenship revoked in July, leaving him stateless — entered Ukraine in September despite being barred from the country. Hundreds of supporters helped Saakashvili push past Ukrainian border guards at the Shehyni border crossing.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Saakashvili's return to the country a "crime" and asked law enforcement to investigate. The two men have known each other since their student days at the same Kiev university in the late 1980s and became political allies in Ukraine.

But they fell out last November after Saakashvili accused Poroshenko of blocking efforts to stop corruption.