Commenting on reports that Ukraine’s new president-elect Petro Poroshenko may invite Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili as his advisor, PM Irakli Garibashvili said: “I would not wish that on Ukraine.”

“My first advice to the newly elected president of Ukraine would be of course not to consider Mikheil Saakashvili as his advisor,” Garibashvili told journalists while visiting various outdoor events on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi, marking the Independence Day on May 26. “My friendly advice would be… to keep Saakashvili at bay.”

Poroshenko told journalists in Kiev on May 25 that there will be Georgian citizens among his advisors; he, however, did not specify. “We have traditionally good relations with Georgians,” Poroshekno said.

Vitali Klitschko, leader of UDAR party, who won mayor’s race in Kiev in Sunday’s election, told journalists on May 26 that Saakashvili “offered his service” and that he also spoke with Georgia’s ex-minister of economy Kakha Bendukidze. “I am sure each of them will be ready to help if need be,” Klitschko said. 

Saakashvili, who was a frequent guest to Ukraine’s interim government, told CNBC after the Sunday’s president election in Ukraine, that Poroshenko is his “friend with whom I studied together, I know him very well; I campaigned for him in this elections.”

“I myself am heading to Kiev tonight and I hope to help them with first advices,” said Saakashvili who was speaking from New York.

Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, touched upon the issue on May 26 when speaking about Ukraine’s presidential election during a press conference in Moscow.

“I paid attention to the statement of Klitschko, who said that while forming his team, Poroshenko is considering to also include in it Saakashvili. He [Saakashvili] is really the one who should not be appointed as a mediator in relations between our states,” Lavrov said.