Georgia's Saakashvili Exits as Ukraine's Odessa Governor

Saakashvili announces new political party, Kiev, November 11.

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, the last of the most influential foreigners remaining in government, resigned as the Governor of the Odessa Oblast on November 7. This is shocking because, after the Maidan Revolution, the Ukrainian government sought to hire foreign officials to key posts to clamp down on corruption. However, in the last two years, many prominent foreign officials have resigned from Ukraine’s public administration. Much like the former Minister of Economy and Trade Aivaras Abromavičius, Saakashvili stepped down citing pervasive corruption. The former governor singled out the central government as the main factor in his resignation, pointing to IMF-mandated disclosures showing many politicians in possession of luxury goods and large fortunes in the millions. These documents also revealed the theft of funds intended to open a new customs center in Odessa, Ukraine’s most important Black Sea port. A few days after proclaiming he would start “a new stage of fighting” and that the Ukrainian government could not “count on getting rid of [him],” he announced his intentions to form a new political faction. He decided to take a hard line against the current Poroshenko-Groysman bloc in the Ukrainian Parliament, claiming that he would not form a joint coalition government with them. Poroshenko responded by insinuating a connection between Saakashvili’s recent Ukrainian political push and the substantial defeat of the Georgian United National Movement Party, which he led. Saakashvili is currently unable to return to Georgia due to charges against him, which he declares, and some critics agree, to be politically motivated. He declared that his new faction would be composed of outsiders or politicians and officials who have spent fewer than three years in office, in an effort to try and remove commercial influence and control from his party. Surprisingly, in addition to a call for snap elections, Saakashvili has also touted himself as a change agent compared to Poroshenko by highlighting praise from and connections to American President-Elect Donald Trump, who reportedly called Saakashvili “one of the greatest leaders in the world.” Whether this new political tack is successful remains to be seen, but it is apparent that despite the resignation, Saakashvili will continue to remain an important figure on Ukraine’s political stage for some time.