“It’s a dirty conspiracy of the oligarchs against me,” said Georgian ex-President and former Governor of the Ukrainian Odessa Mikhail Saakashvili. In the largest Ukrainian port sorry about it, but to support it on the streets not nobody came.
The saleswoman at the Odessa New Bazaar says: “He is such a rebel. Against all. loner. He’s trying, but we in Ukraine it makes no sense. Here, nothing will change”. We’re talking about a man who two years ago were ordered to manage the city. He had to turn Odessa into a “locomotive of Ukrainian reforms”. Mikheil Saakashvili, the former President of Georgia and the Governor of the Ukrainian Odessa region, enjoys a reputation as the largest specialist in the fight against post-Soviet corruption, overgrown bureaucracy and protectionism. In order to take the post of the Governor of Odessa, Saakashvili received the Ukrainian passport. But this week it Saakashvili has selected a former friend, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.
The saleswoman, with plastic flip-flops, jealous of those who travel through the streets of Odessa on the Mercedes, and supported Saakashvili, who wanted to give him a hand but still recognizes that itself to pay taxes is not going to. “They in your pocket?— it disturbs my question about how pay is market merchants sold goods of a certain percentage of the state budget. — They have the money to build himself palaces. Not giving anything!”
Saakashvili launched a campaign against the oligarchs, but was going to do and small merchants. However, now they can sleep peacefully: Saakashvili drove to the United States. Last week in interview to the Georgian TV channel “Rustavi-2”, Saakashvili promised that he would return to Kiev and will continue to struggle with a corrupt Ukrainian regime that embodies Poroshenko.
First they (Saakashvili and Poroshenko) were friends and fought together with Communist thought and the Soviet system. They destroyed monuments to Lenin, and wanted to send to jail for the most brazen Ukrainian thieves, even those sat in Parliament. But now this Union is the end. It seems that Saakashvili took everything too literally.
Then Poroshenko came up with a plan of getting rid of too proactive and totally out of control friend. He decided to take Saakashvili’s passport, but gave no very convincing reason. Allegedly Saakashvili by filling in the form, hidden, in Georgia he opened a case (the media around the world know this without any forms). According to journalists, the real reason is that Saakashvili called Poroshenko the Ukrainian mafia godfather, who serves the interests of the clan, and not his country. “For these oligarchs, I was the fatal danger they will fight to the end” — Saakashvili said.
At his side stood the “new forces”, which he created in the Ukraine and which according to him, is 100 thousand activists in 26 regions. However, a few discreditied his words by the fact that they said they were from overseas. At the time of turbulence around his person Saakashvili chose to go to the United States, where generally without the passport, because the other had not. Looked unconvincing and demonstration in support of Saakashvili in Kiev, which on Thursday gathered on independence less than a hundred people. “The revolution devours its children,” feebly said one of the organizers.
Odessa it was not enough
For many Ukrainians, frustrated by the slow changes of the revolution on the Maidan, the sprawling corruption and the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, Saakashvili was the last hope. Pensions of many citizens hovering near two thousand hryvnia (in the crowns of these about the same). If the old man helped the kids, or if pensioners did, they would not be enough even for food. But Odessa drive luxury cars in European cities will see infrequently.
If someone Saakashvili — a fighter for the rights of all citizens, as opposed to the corrupt bureaucracy and oligarchs, for others he’s a lunatic Russophobe, ambitious tantrums or agent of the United States. Young businessmen in the South Ukrainian port of Odessa with one voice acknowledge that Saakashvili tried something really change in the corrupt system and give the oligarchs hands. “He went in the right direction, but he was not allowed to bring the case to the end. They thought they were going to give him the Odessa, and he will depict the activities and calm down. But apparently for Europe it will look beautiful. But Saakashvili decided to change the whole system, eliminate corruption in Ukraine. Then he took the Governor’s chair, and now — citizenship — says the Odessa businessman Andrew Rusko, which expresses the opinion of the majority. We again missed the chance to quickly get closer to Europe.”
We stand in the port of Odessa, which Saakashvili wanted to turn into a prosperous company, and control over her transfer to Western firms. To do this, Saakashvili has replaced all management of the port, the staff of the Odessa Prosecutor’s office and police, began a campaign against local authorities, who illegally seized the local beaches, built in the Georgian sample ultramodern Center of administrative services where each procedure was controlled so that the clerk could not charge for their services bribes. But in Kiev, Saakashvili idea found no support. The smugglers and the oligarchs in Odessa remains more influential than the new authorities, but not like before the arrival of the Georgian reformer. Something still moved forward.
Surprisingly, even in Odessa in support of Saakashvili is not carried out large demonstrations. Rather, it seems that people gave up. “Saakashvili wanted to make a lot of good, but he’s a little crazy and got down to business too quickly, even frantically,” laughs the owner of a pastry shop near Lanzheron beach near Odessa centre. This man is happy if Saakashvili remained at his post of Governor, but not too sad about the fact that Saakashvili kicked. “Now Michael, as it was called in Georgia, will again be outside the law,” said pastry chef and went to sell ice cream.
Twice in the same river
If history repeats itself. Once Saakashvili has stood at the head of an army of fighters against corruption and the post-Soviet manners. It was in Georgia in 2004. Then he not only won the presidential election, but also became a favorite of Georgians. It was referred to as Mike and hoped that he would lead the country into the EU and NATO, as well as for global prosperity and universal justice. It ended more than a decade of scandals, demonstrations for and against Misha’s, as well as allegations of embezzlement of five million dollars of the budget. Then, just as now, Saakashvili hastily went to the United States of America.
Ukraine is the second country whose citizens Saakashvili praised to the skies for several years and survived it in the first place due to the fact that he is too unconventional politician. In addition, it is complacency and not able to compromise and does not like to listen to the opinions of others. He is like a loose cannon who does not recognize his mistakes and rashly decided on the next adventure. As said of him by his foreign Advisor Thomas Eymond-Laritaz, the “extraordinary and talented political creature.” Others say about Saakashvili that he is a brilliant reformer, but governs the state as if it his private property.
Perhaps Saakashvili stuck to the Ukraine and due to the fact that her fate is similar to Georgia: parts of both countries occupied Russia, the worst enemy of Saakashvili. Russian TV channels with unprecedented enthusiasm passed that Saakashvili remained without a passport.
Now Saakashvili has a chance to become a citizen of Lithuania. Lithuanian MP Petras, Austrevicius already asked his colleagues to consider granting citizenship to Georgian rebel. They say that in Lithuania, too, there is something to improve.
