{"id":115073,"date":"2020-04-24T17:52:39","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T14:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/?p=115073"},"modified":"2020-04-24T17:55:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T14:55:07","slug":"saakashvili-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/saakashvili-back","title":{"rendered":"Is Saakashvili making a political comeback in Ukraine?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This week, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi offered ex-President of Georgia and former head of Odesa regional administration Mikheil Saakashvili the post of the Vice Prime Minister on reforms. Saakashvili called it a \u201cgreat honor\u201d. UCMC takes a closer look at what lies beneath Saakashvili\u2019s return to Ukrainian politics and what his chances of entering the cabinet are. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2019: a comeback after deportation.\u00a0<\/strong>Nearly one year ago, on May 28, 2019, President Zelenskyi ensured restoration of Saakashvili\u2019s\u00a0Ukrainian citizenship<\/a>. The Georgian politician was initially issued the Ukrainian passport in May 2015 at the initiative of then President Petro Poroshenko, a university friend of his. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subsequently, Saakashvili chaired the Odesa regional administration. During his year and a half in office, he had quarreled with nearly everyone in the cabinet. His criticism of Poroshenko resulted in his sacking. Mikheil called his former buddy a \u201chuckster\u201d (baryha). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confrontation with Poroshenko ended in Saakashvili\u2019s deportation from Ukraine. When Zelenskyi ordered to restore his citizenship, he explained that he just \u201ccorrects an illegal decision\u201d and expects no political gains out of it. Saakashvili has been openly supporting Zelenskyi long before.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2019: support to \u201cServant of the People\u201d at the parliamentary elections.\u00a0<\/strong>Being back in Ukraine, Saakashvili\u00a0reassured that he has no political ambitions<\/a>. At the recent parliamentary elections he called on his supporters to vote for the \u201cServant of the People\u201d (Sluha Narodu) party, saying that \u201ceach per cent matters\u201d. After the party got absolute majority in the Parliament and formed Oleksiy Honcharuk\u2019s government, rumors on Saakashvili becoming part of the team stopped.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The<\/strong> <\/strong>politician<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s<\/strong> <\/strong>public<\/strong> <\/strong>appearances<\/strong>. <\/strong>Nevertheless Saakashvili did not disappear. He continued to appear in public as politician \u2013 thus, he has been commenting on key developments in Ukraine\u2019s domestic and foreign policy (he comments on Georgia as well). He takes part in TV shows and keeps reminding that he is a reform expert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Zelenskyi needs Saakashvili: personnel shortage. <\/strong>\u201cHe\u2019s got pressured by personnel shortage,\u201d explained political expert Volodymyr Fesenko to Hromadske. Zelenskyi almost openly admits it when saying that he is looking for efficient executives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is a very powerful figure: he has got experience and successful reform record in Georgia. He\u2019s got great energy, political experience and international contacts. Key to Zelenskyi is his successful experience and great energy,\u201d Fesenko proceeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political expert Serhiy Haidai agrees that \u201cpersonnel shortage\u201d is the motive, he calls it more straightforwardly \u2013 \u201cmanagement crisis\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A change in politics: experienced staff in demand. <\/strong>The year 2020 commenced with political turbulence in Ukraine, when the young cabinet of Oleksiy Honcharuk was reshuffled, and Denys Shmyhal was voted in as the new Prime Minister.  <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political experts mention \u201cchaos\u201d and \u201cshortage of personnel\u201d when describing the circumstances in which the new government was formed. A number of ministries were split to be later reunited, some of the ministers stayed but then left. In the end, the new cabinet that was supposed to focus on economic problems in the first place, was formed with empty seats of the Minister of economy, finance and energy. Several candidates declined the job offers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, cabinet reshuffle demonstrates that Zelenskyi decided to renounce the \u201cnew faces only\u201d approach and started looking for experienced staff, Fesenko proceeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Risks of the \u201cconflict-prone individual\u201d. <\/strong>Risks from Saakashvili\u2019s potential appointment are quite high, past precedents show that he can always cause a big conflict. Moreover, it is likely that his future ambitions will go beyond the Vice Prime Minister\u2019s post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Fesenko, not everyone within Zelenskyi\u2019s team approves of Saakashvili\u2019s appointment. Their concern is that the situation with Poroshenko can repeat, and Saakashvili will turn from President\u2019s ally into his ardent critic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most obvious potential conflict that he can have is with Interior Minister Arsen Avakov with whom they already had a\u00a0bad quarrel<\/a>\u00a0in public in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One should not expect an immediate war between the two of them, while the conflict has all grounds to break out in future \u2013 Avakov will be protecting his influence, while Saakashvili will be also in try to get influence in Shmyhal\u2019s cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unlikely that Prime Minister Shmyhal himself will appreciate the appointment of such a powerful figure as Vice Prime Minister, as it would represent a threat to his own influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political expert Serhiy Haidai is convinced that conflicts with Saakashvili are inevitable: \u201cSaakashvili has zero tolerance to corruption and zero tolerance to, say, having no mindset. It means that a conflict with the government and Zelenskyi\u2019s circle is inevitable.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will the Parliament vote Saakashvili into the office? <\/strong>At the moment, chances are that the Parliament will not vote Saakashvili in as the Vice Prime Minister. Not everyone within the \u201cServant of the People\u201d faction is ready to support his appointment, the reasons vary.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The voting may take place on April 28-29, for now several rounds of negotiations and meetings proceed. It is also planned that Saakashvili will meet the parliamentary factions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi offered ex-President of Georgia and former head of Odesa regional administration Mikheil Saakashvili the post of the Vice Prime Minister on reforms. Saakashvili called it a \u201cgreat honor\u201d. UCMC takes a closer look at what lies beneath Saakashvili\u2019s return to Ukrainian politics and what his chances of entering […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":115095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[699],"tags":[],"section":[743],"form":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs Saakashvili making a political comeback in Ukraine? | UACRISIS.ORG<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This week, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi offered ex-President of Georgia and former head of Odesa regional administration Mikheil Saakashvili | Uacrisis.org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/saakashvili-back\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Saakashvili making a political comeback in Ukraine? 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