Ex-President of Georgia appointed to high public position in Ukraine 

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has confirmed his upcoming appointment to a government post in Ukraine.

As Saakashvili said in an interview with the Ukrainian DW service (Deutsche Welle), he will work as the head of the executive committee of the National Reform Council under the President of Ukraine.

At the same time, Saakashvili did not specify the exact date when he will be appointed to the post.

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“(President of Ukraine Volodymyr) Zelensky wants to use Saakashvili as a catalyst, so that the government starts working faster and concentrating more on reforms and becomes more effective,” said Ukrainian political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko on Hromadske.

Fesenko noted that there are many possible reasons why Zelensky needed Saakashvili. One of them is to “balance” the influential Minister of the Interior Arsen Avakov. However, Fesenko himself believes that if Zelensky has such a motive, then it is secondary; it is Saakashvili’s temperament that he needs, he said. 

Earlier, Saakashvili’s candidacy was considered for the position of Deputy Prime Minister for Reform. However, according to Ukrainian media, during the preliminary consultations in the Verkhovna Rada, this decision did not receive sufficient support from members of the parliamentary majority.

The current Georgian authorities are opposed to the possible appointment of Mikhail Saakashvili to an official post in Ukraine. According to representatives of Tbilisi, the appointment of a person in Ukraine against whom a court in Georgia has issued several convictions is unacceptable.

Under the past president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Mikhail Saakashvili received Ukrainian citizenship, was first appointed adviser to the president, and then governor of the Odessa region. He later resigned, accused the authorities of corruption and tried to organize protests. After that, the former president of Georgia was deprived of Ukrainian citizenship and expelled from the country.

Saakashvili was able to return to Ukraine only after a change of power in 2019. President Zelensky restored his citizenship by decree.

About how Saakashvili came to power in Georgia and about his main achievements in the JAMnews article “Six things about Mikhail Saakashvili that you wanted to ask Georgians”.