Saakashvili team members striving to join Ukraine Cabinet

Reformers from the team of Mikheil Saakashvili, the head of the Odesa regional administration, will try to gain access to Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers this year to enable those remaining in Odesa to better conduct reforms locally, said one of his advisors, Sasha Borovik, as reported by Ukrinform on Jan. 14. “Many of the changes in such a centralized state as Ukraine are impossible to conduct without levers of influence in Kyiv,” Borovik said on Odesa local television, adding that reforms are being impeded owing an absence of political will at the central level.

The report cited Borovik, a former Microsoft executive and Ukrainian emigrant, as the acting head of the Odesa regional administration, without clarifying Saakashvili’s current status.

Zenon Zawada: The only way Saakashvili’s team will be able to become part of the Cabinet is through early parliamentary elections, or by concessions to the West. Saakashvili has the ability to lead a party to parliament, given that he’s Ukraine’s second-most popular politician, according to a recent poll. Early elections are possible, but they will be actively resisted by the president and prime minister. Washington also sees little positive in early elections, which will only intensify parliamentary opposition against Poroshenko. Given Saakashvili’s Western backing and his active role in Ukraine’s reform activity, he could secure his Cabinet posts as a compromise by the Ukrainian government to Washington.