Ukraine expels Saakashvili

Ukraine expels Saakashvili to Poland

Former Georgian leader, Odessa governor, bundled onto private jet and flown to Poland

Alexander Mercouris

the Duran,

13 February, 2018

Ukraine’s President Poroshenko has acted to remove former Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili from Ukraine, having Saakashvili arrested and bundled onto a private jet which flew him to Poland.

Saakashvili’s unceremonious removal from Ukraine appears to have been made at a time when legal proceedings to decide whether or not he should be removed from Ukraine were still underway.  If so then Saakashvili’s removal is arguably illegal and shows contempt for the processes of the Ukrainian court.

I doubt however that anyone in Ukraine would either be surprised about that or would much care about it, and – sad to say – I doubt that the vigilant upholders of the law, human rights and due process in the US and EU, who claim to be Ukraine’s friends and who talk about steering Ukraine towards law governed EU-style democracy, would much care about it either.

Saakashvili’s removal from Ukraine removes from the Ukrainian political scene – at least for the moment – a political adventurer who had become something of a thorn in President Poroshenko’s side.

Saakashvili actually has only minimal levels of political support in Ukraine.

The problem for President Poroshenko is that there is not much support for him in Ukraine either – his approval rating has collapsed – so that any challenge to him from any quarter – including it seems from a figure as discredited and as unpopular as Saakashvili – is apparently more than he can tolerate.

The fact that Ukraine is due to hold Presidential elections next year almost certainly gave Poroshenko an extra incentive to get Saakashvili out of the country before the election cycle began, and he has now acted to make that happen.

Saakashvili Resigns as Governor of Odessa

It All Comes Crashing Down: Saakashvili Resigns as Governor of Odessa. Washington Has Lost Control

Saakashvili cuts and runs. Again. He didn't do it without permission from Washington. In other words: Poroshenko is toast. 

Matthew Allen 

Russia Insider,
7 November, 2016

Former Georgian President (in exile) and current Ukrainian citizen and until just now governor of the southern Odessa region Mikheil Saakashvili has resigned!

Why, you might ask? Because he "hates corruption". And probably has no appetite for eating yet another necktie while he wets his pants. Take the wheel,Reuters:

Saakashvili has since repeatedly accused the Kiev leadership of lacking a real commitment to reform.

Vowing to continue to fight corruption which he said went to the very top of Ukraine's establishment, he told journalists: "I have decided to tender my resignation and start a new stage of the fight. I am not giving up."

In a clear rebuke of Poroshenko, he said: "In reality, in Odessa region, the President personally supports two clans."

Addressing journalists alongside Odessa customs chief Yulia Marushevska, he said the work of reform-minded public officials had been thwarted by higher authorities in Kiev interested in preserving the status quo.

Mike was supposed to be one of those virtuous foreigners charged with fighting corruption/privatizing everything worth more than two hryvnia. He now joins an impressive list of western stooges who have been chased out of Ukraine:

In February, Economy Minister Earlier Aivaras Abromavicius, a Lithuanian, stepped down saying vested interests were blocking his ministry's work.

Later, a government shake-up booted US-born Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko and Western-backed Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk out of office. The appointment of Poroshenko ally Volodymyr Grosyman in his place was seen as a move by the president to consolidate power.

This isn't a sign that Saakashvili failed at his mission — we're sure he did everything he could to make Ukraine attractive to western "free markets" — but rather that Poroshenko is on his way out. Who knows, maybe Saakashvili is positioning himself for Porky's job. Either way, he didn't cut and run without Washington's approval.

Poroshenko is now as popular has Hepatitis B. Which makes you think: Is this Washington preparing for a Trump victory, which would likely mean the end of American support for Poroshenko's shit-stained regime?

Time will tell. Until then, enjoy this music video, which unfortunately we cannot find English subtitles for. It's mostly about Georgian people saying "goodbye" to Saakashvili, though. We look forward to the Ukrainian version.

Mikheil Saakashvili, waiting for a big war! "General, the CIA told me that they pushed the Turks with the Russians"

This is the transcript and translation (from Georgian) of a conversation intercepted and published by Wikileaks in Ukraine.

It was brought to my attention with an interview with Stephen Cohen. 

Saskashvili:”Let the war begin. It suits us”

Михаила Саакашвили в ожидании большой войны! «Генерал ЦРУ сказал мне, что они Турков столкнули с Русскими»

Wikileaks,

25 November, 2015

Translated from Russian by Tom Winter

http://fortruss.blogspot.co.nz/2015/12/ukrainian-wikileaks-cia-cant-control.html

 

 

Transcript of Conversation between M. Saakashvili and Zurab Adeishvili in the car of the Odessa Gubernatora.

M. Zurab How you doing?

Man, you see what just happened?

A. Oh yeah! Everybody has,  how Erdogan knocked down the Russians!

Mikhail Nicolayevich, where are we headed?

M. Gene! wait outside for a bit while I talk to Zurab. Then we'll go.

A. What's going on, Misha, is a big war gonna start?

M. A general with CIA told me the Turks elbowed the Russians, and they have their reasons. Putin bombed the ISIS oil bases and blocked the contraband oil flow to the Turks. The Americans have been arming the Kurds, and Russia is also helping them make a Kurdistan, and Iran is gearing up now. So they wanted to hit back, and the Turks were actually there in ambush.

With that downed aircraft, the Turks warned the Russians not to bomb Syrian Turkmen near the border and it's got the Kurds scared. No one expected the terrorist attack in Paris, there are too many factions in the Islamic State and the CIA can't control them all.

A. Then Misha, Russia could go to war, huge risk,  things will change?

M. Well, Let the war begin! It's fine with us! But, actually nothing's going to happen! Well there won't be tourists going to Turkey, that's all. Don't forget, the Black sea is passing into the hands of Turkey. Right now the biggest problem is if France and Russia form a coalition. It's really dangerous for us!

Yes, what I wanted! One guy Pankisi was coming back from there and was detained in Tbilisi, they intend to cite terrorism!

A. You were asking about Borchashvili, right?! Kezer (D. Kezerashvili, the former Defense Minister of Georgia) told me about him. I warned my guys and they will take action. The terrorism statute won't stick on him, and the case will be closed.

Misha! And who are these people who, in the name of Allah, are threatening Georgia?

M. They're such idiots anyway! One of them, Jemal, with our guys, was in al-Nusra. Then pledged allegiance to ISIL. United the locals and declared the establishment of the Vilayet of Gurjistan (Georgia). Can't say how many of them. See how crazy these morons are acting? 

Let's get down to business! How did you make out on those court deals?

A. The Case of Rustavi (Rustavi-2 TV company) will stretch out for a long time, will go to appeal and then the Supreme court. With Papuashvili (President of the constitutional court of Georgia) we have also agreed that the proceedings will go in the constitutional court. I will do all this, but Kezer tells me that he paid the judges the agreed amount. Also Nick (Gvaramia, general Director of Rustavi-2) calls me and says Bezhuashvili put up half of the money. What can I do? I can't catch that David anywhere.

M. Wait, I'll deal with that stuff! You, tell me what you're doing about Burchuladze (Paata Burchuladze, famous Opera singer).

A. Our guys are on him. We're presenting him as a third political force, but at the Fund they said it is bad for PR! But this is fixable, we'll do it in the form of a coalition. You have to help so the Americans will support it.

M. Zura, take this trial under your personal control. These "Gircha Mirchi" should actively work with Burchuladze. This Vano, Machavariani's brother, is making calf eyes, let them all get to work. Spread rumors that it's an American project; the Americans have warned Penguin (Bidzina Ivanishvili real ruler of Georgia), and Burchuladze is coming to power, say so everywhere.

I promised Paata that Gvaramia and Targamadze will do a PR program and TV Rustam-2 will be working for him. He also asked me for help in getting U.S. support. I promised that if he works hard, he'll get it, and Kelly (Ambassador to Georgia) will openly support him. "Thank you, Mr. Misha," the baritone said he!

What are you laughing at!

A. Oh just you wait! He's such a dolt that is very funny!

M. Enough with the laughing! Not the time for it now! Tell me that Margvela (Giorgi Margvelashvili current President of Georgia) said?

A. Bokeria is aligned with Margvel -- they are childhood friends. He promised to help Ugulava (Gigi Ugulava, who was arrested, former mayor of Tbilisi) come New Year, but he's holding back. He says that we need to create the appropriate political environment and warm up to Vano (Merabishvili, the arrested former Prime Minister of Georgia) and others. We've got to declare that our guys who are behind bars are political prisoners. There's already a legal scheme in readiness; we'll also use the levers in Strasbourg.

M. At seven o'clock David (Sakvarelidze, Deputy General Prosecutor of Ukraine, Prosecutor of Odessa region) will be at my place, you too come at 8:30. We have to solve the "Port" problem and send a prosecutor there. Sakvarelidze in Dnepropetrovsk sent Gongadze, you know him. These bastards are not going to pay. We've got to think up with something! And this Rabbit Yatsinyuk generally acts insolent!

A. Okay! I'll be there for sure.

M. Gene! Come on, quick, we're outta here!

Расшифровка Разговора М. Саакашвили и З. Адеишвили в автомобиле Одесского Губернатра.

М. Как дела Зураб?

Вот, видишь, что происходит!

А. Да! Все видели, как подбил Эрдоган русских!

Михаил Николаевич, куда едим?

М. Женя! пока с Вадимом подождите с наружи, поговорю с Зурабом. Потом поедем.

А. Что происходит Миша, большая война начнется?

М. Генерал с CIA (ЦРУ) сказал мне, что Турков столкнули с Русскими, у Турков также были свои причины. Путин бомбил нефтяные базы в ISIS (ИГИЛ) и перекрыл потоки нелегальной нефти Туркам. Американцы вооружили курдов, но и Россия помогает им в создании Курдистана, с Ирана вооружаются сейчас. Так что они хотели ударить, и Турки были фактически в засаде. Сбытым самолетом Турки предупредили русских, что не бомбить Сирийских туркманов у границы и курды напугались этим. Никто не ожидал, теракта в Париже, В исламском государстве много разных группировок и ЦРУ не может всех контролировать.

А. Тогда Миша, Россия может начать войну, будут большие опасные, перемены?

М. Ну и что, Пусть начнется война! нас это вполне устраивает! А, Реально нечего не произойдет! Ну не поедут туристы в Турцию, вот и все. Не забывай, Черноморские проходы в руках Турции. Сей час самая большая проблема, что бы Фраинция и Россия не создали коалицию. Это реально опасно для нас!

Да, что я хотел! Один Панкийский парень вернулся оттуда, и задержали в Тбилиси, хотят в терроризме обвинить!

А. О Борчашвили спрашиваешь, верно?! О нем Кезера (Д. Кезерашвили бывший министр Обороны Грузии) тоже говорил мне. Я своих ребят предупредил и они примут меры. Статью терроризма не смогут ему предъявить и дело закроется.

Миша! А кто ети люди, которые именем Аллаха, угрожают Грузии?

М. Они придурки короче! Из них Джемал, с нашими ребятами был в Ал-Нустре. Потом присягнул ИГИЛ. Объединил земляков и заявили о создании вилайета Грурджистана (Грузия). Сколько их, не могу сказать. Видел, с каким гонором выступают эти дебилы!

Давай по делу! Что ты сделал, по тем вопросам?

А. Дело Рустави (Телекомпания Рустави -2) затянем надолго, также будет в апелляции и верховном суде. С Папуашвили (Председатель конституционного суда Грузии) мы договорились и в конституционном суде иски поступят. Я все это сделаю, но Кезере скажи, пожалуйста, что заплатил судьям обещанное. Также мне Ника (Гварамия ген. Директор рустави-2) звонит и говорит,что Бежуашвили им половину денег отдал. Я что могу делать? Этого Давида не могу негде отловить.

М. Подожди, их вопрос я решу! Ты про Бурчуладзе (Паата Бурчуладзе известный оперный певец) скажи, что делаете.

А. К нему прикрепили наших людей, Его преподносим, как третью политическую силу, но фондом что назвали плохо для пиара! Но это исправимо, сделаем в виде коалиции. Твоя помощь нужна, чтобы американцы поддержали.

М. Зура, Возьми этот процесс под личный контроль. Эти « Гирча Мирчи» должны активно работать с Бурчуладзе. Этот Вано, брат Мачавариани, строит телячьи глаза, пусть все активно работают. Распространите слухи, что это американский проект, что Пингвина (Бидзина Иванишвили реальный правитель Грузии) предупредили американцы и Бурчуладзе приходит к власти, так говорите везде. Я пообещал Паате, что Гварамия и Таргамадзе сделают пиар программу и Телекомпания Рустваи-2 будет на него работать. Он тоже попросил меня, помочь в получении поддержки США. Я пообещал, что если будет активно работать, все получится и Келли (посол США в Грузии) открыто поддержит его. «Большое спасибо, батоно Миша», баритоном сказал он!

Что ты смеешься!

А. Подожди ну! Он такой дурной, что смешно очень!

М. Хватит уже ржать! Не до этого сейчас! Ты мне скажи, что Маргвела (Георгий Маргвелашвили нынешний Президент Грузии) говорит?

А. С Маргвела, Бокерия кентуется, они друзья детства. Он пообещал, до нового года помочь Угулаве (Гиги Угулава арестованный, Бывший мер г. Тбилиси), но воздерживается. Говорит, что надо создавать соответствующую политическую обстановку и помилует Вано (Мерабишвили арестованный бывший премьер-министр Грузии) и других. Я думаю, наших ребят, кто за решеткой, надо объявить политзаключенными. Есть уже подготовленная правовая схема, рычаги в Страсбурге, тоже используем.

М. В семь часов Давид (Сакварелидзе Зам. Ген прокурора Украины, прокурор Одесской области) приедет ко мне, ты тоже подъезжай в 8:30. Надо решить проблему «Припортового» и направить прокуратуру там. Сакаварелидзе в Днепропетровске отправил Гонгадзе, ты его знаешь. Эти ублюдки не собираются платить. Надо что то придумать! А этот Кролик Яцинюк, вообще обнаглел!

А. Хорошо! Приду обязательно.

М. Женя! Давай быстро, Поехали!

McCain and Saakashvili planned false flag in Syria

The video below is in Russian, from the news program ‘Vesti’. However if you read the article below in conjunction with John McCain in his own words you will get the idea.



Sakaashvili and McCain want to carry out a false flag in Syria

Delyagin,

27 December, 2015

Via Yandex Translate

Well, since we started the Georgian theme, then appeared in Gruzinform with reference to Ukrainian sources has provided a transcript of Saakashvili in Odessa, which begins with the words "now, wait, I'll set off an anti-Russian cannon". That is, those listening in were professional people.he meaning of the wiretap. Mr. Saakashvili is at the command of Senator McCain .... So they threw after the Pankisi gorge, through militias, through the former head of financial police of the Minister of defence of Georgia of a certain Kezerashvili, who is wanted for embezzlement of public funds, transferred with the support of some Ukrainian politicians MANPADS. 

The plan is very simple – to shoot down an American aircraft from from MANPADS – moreover there are  people who will tell you when and which plane is on which route will it fly to shoot it down with absolute probability, write it off then on, the Russian armed forces, will provide witnesses, who will allegedly see with their own eyes and will tell any tale, that you need. 

Well, after to carry out a false flag (provocation) against Kurdish villages shooting them with rocket launchers and say that again this is were ours. And thus to push the United States and Russia together in the skies of Syria. 

A very eloquent conversation, by the the tone of voice it is quite plausible, so here is the prospect for which we now need to prepare. 

Very hard-hitting statements against Mr. Obama that you want to encourage to protect the interests of Saakashvili in Syria and Georgia, who is now busy with elections and not engaged in combating the Russian Federation.

Chelyshev:

- About possible provocations of our aircraft and the American began to speak almost immediately, as soon as we've gone.

Delyagin:

- Here is some materials that relate to practical training. There is called a large number names, called routes, the people who professionally treat MANPADS and MANPADS, and the most serious air defenses are already deployed there, so we can only expect trouble and actually, I think that the Russian defense Ministry had to engage in close cooperation with their American counterparts. To the extent that the American colleagues want to speak.

Chelyshev:

- Let's hope that common sense will win... the Pilots understand that they will to put my neck.

Delyagin:

Pilots understand, but pilots in command generals who want to get into a cushy little job. And given that, if the Democrats will be substituted and will be discredited, the Republicans will come, there will be more warm cubicles than in the Obama administration. So the situation is quite unpleasant and the people who said that Saakashvili now in Odessa and he will not be able to take a crap, because it will be Odessa, practice shows that it is extremely naive people. If a rabid dog running down the street, it still represents a danger for you.

Саакашвили и Маккейн хотят столкнуть США и РФ в Сирии!

Ну, раз уж мы занялись грузинской темой, то тут появилось в Грузинформ со ссылкой на украинские источники сообщение о том, что расшифровка разговоров Саакашвили в Одессе, которая начинается со слов «сейчас, подождите, я тут антипрослушку включу». То есть, слушали, судя по всему, люди профессиональные. Смысл прослушки. Господин Саакашвили по команде сенатора Маккейна …. Значит, они перебросили уже через Панкийское ущелье, через боевиков, через бывшего главу финансовой полиции министра обороны Грузии некоего Кезарашвили, который находится в розыске за хищение госсредств, перебросили при поддержке украинских некоторых политиканов ПЗРК. План очень простой – сбить из ПЗРК американский самолет – причем, там уже есть люди, которые сообщат, когда и какой самолет по какому маршруту полетит, чтобы его сбить со стопроцентной вероятностью, списать это потом на российские вооруженные силы, предоставить свидетелей, которые, якобы, все видели своими глазами и расскажут любую легенду, какую нужно. Ну а после осуществить провокацию в отношении курдских поселков – расстрелять их системами залпового огня и сказать, что это опять-таки были наши. И таким образом столкнуть Россию и США в небе Сирии. Очень красноречивый разговор, по интонациям вполне правдоподобно, так что вот это та перспектива, к которой нам сейчас нужно готовиться. Очень нелицеприятные высказывания в отношении господина Обамы, которого нужно подвигнуть к тому, чтобы защищать интересы Саакашвили в Сирии и в Грузии, который сейчас занят выборами и не занимается противодействием РФ.

Челышев:

- О возможных провокациях самолетов наших и американских начали говорить практически сразу, как только мы туда полетели.

Делягин:

- Вот это некоторые материалы, которые касаются уже практической подготовки. Там называется большое количество фамилий, называются маршруты, люди, которые профессионально обращаются с ПЗРК, и сами ПЗРК, и наиболее серьезные средства ПВО уже туда переброшены, так что остается ждать неприятностей и на самом деле, я думаю, что российское Минобороны должны было бы уже вступить в тесное взаимодействие со своими американскими коллегами. В той степени, в какой американские коллеги захотят разговаривать.

Челышев:

- Давайте надеяться, что здравый смысл все-таки победит… Летчики-то понимают, что они будут своей шкурой рисковать.

Делягин:

- Летчики понимают, но летчиками командуют генералы, которым хочется пробраться в тепленький кабинетик. А учитывая, что, если сейчас демократы подставятся и будут дискредитированы, придут республиканцы, там будет больше теплых кабинетиков, чем при администрации Обамы. Так что ситуация достаточно неприятная и люди, которые говорили, что Саакашвили теперь в Одессе и он больше не сможет нам гадить, потому что он будет заниматься Одессой, практика показывает, что это предельно наивные люди. Если бешеная собака бегает по улице, она все равно представляет для вас опасность.

Ukrainian Wikileaks: McCain and Saakashvili are plotting to shoot down American plane in Syria to blame Russia [transcript]

The Saakashvili phenomenon

Saakashvili's Legend, A Con for the Ages

In the latest news from the ongoing comedy skit that is Ukrainian politics, we learn that Mikheil Saakashvili has been appointed governor of Odessa oblast.

Inna Sokolovska / Shutterstock.com

Anatoly Karlin

Who is Saakashvili?

The son of Soviet apparatchiks with ties to the diplomatic service, which was dominated by Georgians in the late USSR, this onetime university dropout enjoyed a great deal of success in the 1990s, picking up various fellowships, grants, stipends, awards, etc. from respectable European and American institutions. Invited back into Georgia by his friend Zurab Zhvania, he soon went into opposition to Gorby’s Foreign Minister turned Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze. Eventually, this culminated in Shevardnadze’s overthrow in the Rose Revolution of 2003. From then on, it was a familiar story.

Saakashvili was, back then, one of the beacons of pro-Western liberalism and reform in the former Soviet world, the object of regular paeons in the MSM. Some of the lustre has since come off, following his idiotic attack on Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia that resulted in military defeat in 2008, and his own ignominious political end in Georgia itself following revelations of mass abuse in the prison system – under his Presidency, the incarceration rate tripled to become Europe’s highest per capita – relevations that were carefully coordinated by his political opponents. He is now wanted in his native land, which he fled even before his Presidential term came to a formal end, on an array of charges related to corruption as well as possible involvement in various suspicious deaths (including that of Zhvania kek) andmurders. Nonetheless, for all his democratic and human rights failings, which all but the most hardcore neocons by now acknowledge, there is still a very widespread impression that he is at least someone who can get the job done – that is, improve living standards, strengthen the country, and root out corruption. After all, did he not liquidate the everyday bribery that is a depressing feature common to the entire post-Soviet world? Did he not make Georgia one of the world’s most attractive places for business? Did he not lay the foundations of, in his own word s, “a future Georgian Switzerland, the future Georgian Singapore, the future Georgian Dubai, the Georgian Hong Kong, and of the greatest Georgia of all times”? And would not Odessa benefit from his impeccable credentials and expertise?

The only problem is that his legend is lies, lurid and false; a con for the ages.

The Economy

The economy did grow under Saakashvili. And across a range of institutional indices like the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business, Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, and various economic freedom indices it did radically improve its position.

The only problem was that it was doing so from an exceedingly low base, and even today, total GDP per capita (in constant dollars) is still considerably lower than it was in 1990. That’s 25 years and counting! Moreover, the growth rate was virtually the same under the “reformist” Saakashvili as it was under the “Soviet fossil” Shevardnadze. Nor was it any better than that of Georgia’s neighbors. To the contrary, it was far worse than in Azerbaijan, which yes you could ascribe to oil, but was also far worse than in neighboring Armenia and in Belarus. Both Armenia and Belarus are located in geopolitical straits just as trying as Georgia’s – Armenia is blockaded on two sides by Turkey and Azerbaijan, while Belarus is known as “Europe’s last dictatorship” and is under longstanding Western sanctions. Georgia’s performance, including under Saakashvili, only looks adequate in comparison to the total disaster zones that are Ukraine and Moldova. Productivity in the agricultural sector – where around half the Georgian population still works – has remained completely static since the early 1990s, whereas it more than trebled in neighboring Armenia.

Amazing as it might sound, but fanatically-pursued libertarian reforms, US military aid, and a couple of hotels erected by Trump to service gushing Westerners seeking photo-ops with Saakashvili on G.W. Bush Boulevard do not a strong economy make.

Corruption

One of the things that virtually everyone agrees on, even his critics, is that under Saakashvili, Georgia “solved” its corruption problem. If so, this would make it a somewhat unique achievement for the ex-Soviet world, bar only Estonia, and worthy of praise.

Now what does the data say? Certainly Georgia greatly improved its positions on surveys that elites pay a lot of attention to, such as Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, where Georgia increased its rating from an abysmal 18/100 in 2003 to a respectable, Baltic-level 49/100 by 2013. But according to ratingsthat measure corruption realities as opposed to the perceptions of anonymous “experts” who can be unduly influenced by PR agencies – the likes of Aspect Consulting, Orion Strategies, Public Strategies, and the Glover Park Group, which received millions of dollars under Saakashvili to burnish his reformist image – the improvement on the ground was far more modest. 6% of Georgians reported paying a bribe in the past year in 2004, the first year of Saakashvili’s Presidency, and before his reforms could reasonably be expected to have taken effect; in 2013, the last year of his President, it was 4%. 

An improvement, sure, but not a particularly radical one. Actual opinion polls by Transparency International suggest that lowlevel corruption was not a big problem in Georgia pre-Saakashvili, and its reduction under him could just as easily have been a simple matter of the general withering away of the state’s regulatory agencies under his libertarian reforms. For instance, the near wholesale removal of university tuition subsidies – essential for democratic access to higher education in a country as poor as Georgia – led to a plunge in tertiary enrollment by almost a third relative to the early-to-mid-2000s. Fewer students automatically translates to fewer bribes for grades. These examples can be extended indefinitely: Less contact with the state automatically leads to “lower” corruption. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s “good” in all cases.

What about institutions? According to the Open Budget Index, an organization that asseses the transparency of state accounts according to objective criteria (as opposed to perceptions), Georgia did improve, but has always lagged Putin’s “mafia state.” Now, true, a low score in the OBI doesn’t necessarily imply institutions are more corrupt; they could be both secretive and honest. But in the virtual absence ofobjective, quantitative measures of institutional quality – of which corruption perceptions by a bunch of anonymous and unaccountable “experts” are most definitely not – it’s the best we have, at least as a rough proxy of states’ eagerness to tackle corruption and willingness to be forthright with their citizens.

Then, in addition to lowlevel and institutional corruption, we also have highlevel corruption. This is the hardest to gauge of them all, even just by definition (how many American bank bailouts are equivalent to how many Chinese or Russian offshore accounts?). That said, this is the one aspect of corruption in Georgia that many people acknowledge is unlikely to have improved and might have even become worse relative to Shevardnadze’s period. To the contrary, all accounts indicate that Saakashvili merely centralized highlevel corruption around his own figure – allegations that have now been given form by concrete criminal charges against him in Georgia.

Added all up, we likely see real but modest improvements in lowlevel and institutional corruption under Saakashvili, which is of course “good” but doesn’t come anywhere near to justifying the panegyrics addressed towards him by Western elites and their lackeys in Ukraine when we consider that these improvements were seen in most of the rest of the ex-Soviet world in the 2000s as well, including in the dark lands themselves, Putin’s Russia. As for highlevel corruption all that happened was that the pig put on lipstick.

Demography

Surely the ultimate litmus test of a political leader’s performance is in whether people want to live in his realm or not. For a long time, for all his foreign policy failings and overblown economic and institutional achievements, it appeared that in this at least Saakashvili had succeeded, with Georgia’s demographic decline stabilizing at around four and half million people after 2002 due to declining emigration and a rebound in the fertility rate from 1.4 children per woman in the early 2000s to 1.8 today.

Then came the 2014 Census, and it emerged that Georgia’s population decline had if anything accelerated under Saakashvili, with the population hitting 3.7 millionrelative to 4.4 million in 2002 and 4.9 million in 1989 (all figures are minus Abkhazia and South Ossetia).

Where did all the Georgians go? Most went to Russia: Of the $1.26 billion Georgia received in remittances in 2011 (almost 10% of Georgia’s GDP), more than half – $655 million – came from Russia. Surely quite an embarassment that the economy of “Switzerland in the Caucasus” and “oldest Colchis Europe, the most ancient civilization” was essentially held afloat by Georgian Gasterbaiters in a “barbarian” country with “mongoloid brutality and ideology,” as Saakashvili himself put it.

But even as Saakashvili ranted and raved about Russia’s Asiatic barbarity, using vocabulary that had disappeared off respectable European tongues since 1968, it appears that Georgians continued to vote with their feet and emigrate to Russia in ridiculously large numbers. For comparison, Georgia’s population loss over the past decade is equivalent to what saw in Latvia or Lithuania after their accession to the EU. I imagine it is considerably easier for a Balt to move to Ireland than it is for a Georgian to move to Moscow.

Mishiko in Odessa

Now that the myth has been swept away, we have just the man before us, whose essence boils down to an idiosyncratic combination of iconoclasm, vindictive incompetence, and Western cargo cultism.

Perhaps the best real life metaphor for this was the demolition of a Soviet-era monument to victory in the Great Patriotic War in Kutaisi, in which 200,000 Georgians died. Not a monument to Stalin, or anything like that – though it should be noted that Georgians are far more partial towards Stalin than are Russians – but just a simple victory monument. But they couldn’t even get that right. When it was blown up, two people – a mother and her eight year old daughter – were killed by the flying concrete, and four others were seriously injured. This was noticed, even in the West. As a Western cargo cultist in a position of power you really have to fuck up pretty good to even get American state media like RFERL to criticize you.

It takes true skillz to make all three of these people laugh at you.

On getting appointed to head Odessa oblast, despite having at most just ever visited it as a tourist, Saakashvili smarmily proclaimed “I ❤ Odessa.” A whole range of other people were not that happy. Kolomoysky, the oligarch-lord of Dnepropetrovsk, whose protege Igor Palitsa had previously ruled Odessa and who is locked in a simmering conflict with Poroshenko, said that Saakashvili would betray Odessa to the Russians at the first opportunity: “By the way, how many citizenships does Saakashvili have? Would probably beat even me. American, Georgian, Dutch, and now Ukrainian” (Kolomoysky, for the record, has three. When a journalist told him that double citizenship is illegal in Ukraine, Kolomoysky remarked that while that is true,there’s nothing illegal about triple citizenship on the lawbooks. A bona fide Odessan retort if there ever was one). Lyashko, a caricature of a nationalist politician who is also widely regarded as a faggot amongst all Ukrainians, including even his supporters (much more so for his hystrionic grandstanding and violent denials than for the actual details of his sexual orientation), and is also deeply at odds with Kolomoysky, was also against the appointment: “Of all Ukraine’s 45 million citizens, not a single one could be found to head Odessa oblast? … [Poroshenko] admitted before the whole world that Ukrainians are unable to govern themselves. Maybe we should get a President from abroad too?” Sure… why not. Finally, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s PM and President at the time of the South Ossetian War, undiplomatically remarked: “The comedy show continues. Unhappy Ukraine…”

When such a wide diversity of characters infuriates and/or amuses such a wide and conflicting range of political forces, you know that the whole thing is a pathetic face.

Both Western and Russian analysts have linked Saakashvili’s appointment to the mounting blockade of Transnistria, the breakaway Russo-Ukrainian population Moldovan province. With Ukraine now on board as well as Moldova, its position has become very precarious. Short of Russia establishing an air corridor, the garrison within Transnistria is no longer able to resupply. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is now an additional potential flashpoint to an outbreak of overt hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. In this sense, bearing in mind Odessa’s position right next to Transnistria, Saakashvili’s resume is exceptional.

But in reality things are probably somewhat simpler. Odessa is the most unstable province in terms of separatist sentiment along with Kharkov, due to both demographics and memories of the massacre of anti-junta activists in May 2, 2014. Poroshenko needs someone who is able to crack heads if need be, someone who is unrelated to Kolomoysky, his prime rival in Ukraine’s game of thrones, and preferably also someone who as an outsider would be unable to establish his own independent powerbase. Finally, it is a solid “fuck you” to Russia, and fuck what Georgia – one of Ukraine’s putative allies – makes of that. This might not sound very rational to Western ears, but reason and moderation has always been foreign to the Maidan ideologues. That is why they have unleashed a civil war in place of dialog in the first place. That is why they have claimed the not inconsiderable achievement of alienating major figures in the Polish security establishment – traditionally, and understandably, highly anti-Russian – by their maniac worship of Stepan Bandera and his murderous goons.

So in this sense Saakashvili’s appointment is perfectly understandable.

On another level, however, it is also rather sad, and not just in the way it blithely ignores Odessan opinions and lays bare the failure of Ukrainian statecraft. Saakashvili might have been a cargo cultist, obsessed with making the correct gestures – G.W. Bush Boulevards, being the third largest contributor in terms of troop quantity in the occupation of Iraq – to get cargo from the West and even half-succeeding at it – Trump Towers in Tblisi, a few five star hotels in Batumi, copious US military aid, etc. None of that cargo made a difference when Saakashvili’s forces murdered Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia in the expectation that the US would openly intervene on his side, only to face complete military defeat and the permanent reversal of the Stalinist-era borders that gave ethnically distinct Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Georgia in the first place.

But at least, in his defense, so far as cargo cults go, Saakashvili was the real deal. How much more pathetic is it that Poroshenko’s Ukraine is making a cargo cult of a cargo cultist?