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February 16, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Saakashvili is not the only one suffering at the polls. According to recent polls all Ukraine’s politicians are doing badly as the electorate are tired of the current elite. What is remarkable is Poroshenko’s patent unpopularity with voters has not translated into greater popularity for his rivals.
Despite Saakashvili’s illegal entry to the country and statelessness, he was not arrested and applied for refugee status with the local authorities. The decision to deport Saakashvili comes as his application for refugee status was finally rejected this week, according to the authorities.
The choice of Poland is a compromise by Kyiv.
The Border Service say that Saakashvili is being sent back to the country from which he came, but usually deportees are sent back to their country of origin – doubly so in Saakashvili’s case as he has no passport. The Georgian authorities applied to Kyiv for Saakashvili’s deportation to Tbilisi on at least one occasion in 2017. The former Georgian president is wanted in his homeland on charges of corruption and abuse of power, and the Georgian authorities said on February 11 that if he arrives in Tbilisi he will be immediately arrested.
Despite having a reputation as a tough reformer, who famously sacked the entire traffic police force in Georgia to curb rampant corruption, Saakashvili is charged with abusing his position while in office. Amongst the accusations are
trips to a US fat farm with his friend the mayor of Tbilisi that cost $40,000 per head and was paid for with public money. He is also accused of buying an expensive cashmere coat using public funds which he later returned to Georgia’s general prosecutor with a note to his successor Bidzina Ivanisvhili saying “I return [the coat] and you can use it as you like.”
Saakashvili denies any wrongdoing and says the Georgian charges are politically motivated.
The deportation is an attempt by Poroshenko to silence Saakashvili as the Ukrainian president
comes under increasing pressure ahead of
the elections. Poroshenko has been playing increasing rough on the domestic field, using administrative resources to sully his potential political opponents and reneging on promises made to Ukraine’s main donor, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that would hurt him politically, such as hiking domestic gas tariffs or pushing through a reform to create a land market. Following the issue of a $3bn sovereign Eurobond last year, the government is much less dependent on donors’ aid and has subsequently taken its foot off the reformist gas pedal.
The deportation probably ends Saakashvili’s political career in Ukraine. He set up a party in November 2016 that was registered in February 2017 and called for early elections, but while he is very vocal he has been unable to garner much political traction with the population.
His message of disappointment at the failure by the authorities to deliver on any meaningful reforms that actually improve the life of the man in the street should have resonated with the electorate. "We will create a new broad political power, a platform of new forces, and our goal is to change the present, existing, so-called political elite, who are actually profiteers and social misfits," Saakashvili
said at press conference to mark the establishment of his party in November 2016. However, voters clearly don't see Saakashvili as the man to make the changes.
It also brings to an end Ukraine’s experiment with importing the “team Georgia” approach
to reforms. In an attempt to copy Saakashvili’s dramatic clean up after being elected president of Georgia, on which he built his international reputation, Ukraine imported several Georgians to head up various initiatives, including as
the head of Ukraine’s police force. However, this attempt failed as these reformers were stymied by institutional resistance to change and were quickly ousted from their posts.