The Georgian president is ready to return citizenship to more than 10,000 Georgians living abroad as citizens of other countries, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

"In accordance with the organic law on citizenship, the president of Georgia issued a decree as per which citizenship of more than 10,000 (Georgian) people were taken away in connection with getting citizenship of other countries," said Manana Manjgaladze, a spokeswoman for President Mikheil Saakashvili.

The South Caucasus country has already seen a situation in which its prime minister is actually a French citizen.

The citizenship of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili was revoked by President Mikheil Saakashvili in late 2011 after the billionaire announced his intentions to enter politics.

The Georgian constitution does not allow a Georgian with dual citizenship to run for president, prime minister or parliament speaker but does not rule out the possibility of a citizen of any European Union member country doing that.

Ivanishvili has renounced his Russian citizenship and was in the process of renouncing his French citizenship when the Georgian president made a special case of appointing him as the new prime minister of the country. Endi

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