Mikheil Saakashvili revealed his reform plans in Ukraine. First, he will conduct another revolution in the country – this time anti-elite. And for the development of the economy, he suggests launching enterprises in China that have closed in Ukraine due to a pandemic. Although no one believes in Saakashvili’s reforming abilities, analysts believe that in this speech he unwittingly revealed his true purpose in Ukraine.
Mikheil Saakashvili, who headed the Ukrainian reform executive committee this week, made loud statements in a new status. The official believes that all attempts to carry out reforms in the country were unsuccessful and those who feel good at the “feeding trough” remained in the field.
“An anti-bureaucratic, anti-elite revolution is about to happen in Ukraine. All those people who feel so good at this “feeding trough”, they have not gone anywhere, they have remained. And they are waiting for this fervor to pass away from us, people who want changes will weaken, and they will say again that we said that they didn’t succeed, we warned you, ” Saakashvili said on the air show “Freedom of Speech by Savik Schuster.”
The former president of Georgia and the ex-governor of the Odessa region noted that other taxes and independent courts are needed to attract investors, but “bureaucracy needs much less.” According to him, the country has a national anti-corruption bureau that “does not take bribes,” but can work “much better,” and the anti-corruption court is “small and very clumsy.” “Everything else is rotten enough. All attempts at reform have not gone anywhere, ” said the former president of Georgia.
Saakashvili also called it a mistake to underestimate the role and personality of the current president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, who is not a representative of the old elite. In addition, Saakashvili called the method of economic development of the country. According to him, “enterprises are leaving China” and Ukraine may again become the “industrial hub of Europe.”
Indeed, after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, China slowed down its industrial growth; some Western companies halted their production in China.
Mikhail Saakashvili in 2015 became the head of the administration of the Odessa region and received Ukrainian citizenship. After a year and a half, he had disagreements with the then president Petro Poroshenko because of the prevailing corruption in the country. Following this, in 2017, Saakashvili was deprived of Ukrainian citizenship. An attempt to return to the country in 2018 led to detention, expulsion and a ban on entry until 2021.
However, in May 2019, the new President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky returned Saakashvili citizenship, and in mid-April it became known about the upcoming appointment of the former governor. However, if Zelensky initially hoped to give Saakashvili a post in the government, then he was forced to give the politician less weighty powers, since if he received the ministerial portfolio, approval of the Rada was required, most of which was opposed to Saakashvili.
This week, Georgia decided to recall its ambassador Teymuraz Sharashenidze from Kiev for consultations. Tbilisi expressed strong dissatisfaction with Zelensky’s decision in connection with the fact that several criminal cases were opened against Saakashvili in his homeland. On Saturday, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Garibashvili predicted the imminent repeated expulsion of Saakashvili from Ukraine. “For nine years Saakashvili was the president of Georgia, and then renounced Georgian citizenship, this is unprecedented, this is shameful,” the minister said.
Kiev political analyst and journalist Vladimir Skachko is sure that the reformer from Saakashvili is like a bullet from “known bio-waste”. “This was proved not by the ill-wishers of Mikhail Nikolaevich, but by all his activities both at the head of Georgia and at various positions in Ukraine,” Skachko told the newspaper VZGLYAD.
The political scientist believes that Saakashvili voluntarily or involuntarily gave up the main task assigned to him in his new position – under the guise of a personnel revolution, to finally “clean up the independent Ukrainian political elite” and accelerate “pre-sale preparation of Ukraine”.
“Slaves do not need the elite. They need drovers, foremen and centurions to lead them. Since Ukraine has been assigned the role of a modern neocolony, then there should be an exclusively colonial administration either sent or recruited from compradors and collaborators, ” Skachko is sure.
The head of the Third Sector Ukrainian center, Andrei Zolotarev, called Saakashvili a talented politician who subtly senses the sought-after messages, “but in this case he articulates the intentions of our external partners, the “pigs” who are fighting the Ukrainian oligarchy.” The expert predicts that over the next decade, the Ukrainian oligarchy will be “eaten by more powerful competitors, on whose behalf Saakashvili now stands.” “Behind Saakashvili’s back are those forces that are already dictating to the political leadership of the country which laws to pass and which reforms to implement. Saakashvili has nothing to do with the interests of ordinary Ukrainians, ”Zolotarev told the VZGLYAD newspaper.
I am abruptly convinced that a country can only become an agricultural hub, but not an industrial hub, which Saakashvili is talking about. In recent years, the country’s industry has been deliberately destroyed, “so that in its place there remains a transit infrastructure, or vast land.” “The land liberated from peasants and generally from Ukrainians can really become a reservoir for industrial crops such as rape, corn, sunflower, which turn the land into unusable, or reserved for elite plots that will produce environmentally friendly products for the Western elite,” Skachko is sure.
In favor of this version, the interlocutor emphasizes, they say the requirements of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on land reform. “This is an unequivocal sale of state land, an increase in plots that can be sold in one hand, and permission to sell land directly to foreigners. Unfortunately, Ukraine has become the territory for the most surprising political, economic, social, cultural, spiritual experiment in the 21st century, ”emphasizes Skachko.
Zolotarev adds that Ukraine could become an industrial hub in the 1990s, but now this opportunity has been missed because the industry has been distributed to the oligarchs. “In addition to cheap labor, Ukraine can offer nothing more. Europe does not need an industrial competitor. We saw this according to the fate of the Antonov enterprise. The Belgians tried unsuccessfully to offer the An-70 aircraft project, but in the end a similar Airbus project appeared, ” Zolotarev recalled.
The political scientist also objected to those who cite the example of Slovakia, which over the past 20 years has become one of the largest automakers. The main difference between Slovaks is that they are members of the EU.
“The external partners, on which Ukraine is totally dependent, see the country only as a cheap agrarian and raw materials appendage of the countries of the golden million,” summed up Andrei Zolotarev.