Saakashvili appointed to lead National Council of Reforms of Ukraine

Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian President and
Odesa regional administration head, was appointed on May 7 as the head of the
executive committee the National Council of Reforms at the President’s Office.
“I sincerely congratulate Mikheil Nikolozovych with this new challenge. I
believe that he will be able to give an impulse to the National Council of
Reforms and help in implementing important changes in the life of the country,”
President Zelensky said in a statement when issuing the decree after a long
meeting with Saakashvili that day. Zelensky also appointed Kyiv IT executive
Oleksandr Olshanskiy as the council’s deputy head.

With the appointment, Zelensky has shown he is ready
to take unordinary steps to break the status quo, “which is a swamp,”
Saakashvili wrote on his Facebook page. “Ukraine needs to get out of the swamp,
but this can only be done by a president who was never a thief, never will
become one (I am sure that President Zelensky is that way), and who has the
ambition to become a person in Ukrainian history that was able to do something
for his people and for every Ukrainian.”

The Georgian government announced on May 8 it’s
recalling its ambassador to Ukraine for consultations in response to the
appointment of Saakashvili, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.
Saakashvili is a person “convicted and under search by Georgia’s judicial
system,” the Georgian foreign minister said. “This is an accepted practice in
diplomatic relations that points to the emergence of certain problems in
bilateral relations. To determine future steps, consultations are needed with
the ambassador.”

Zenon Zawada:
Saakashvili’s proposal to serve in the cabinet
was met with not only skepticism, but concern that he would gradually take the
spotlight and public support from Zelensky, and by extension, the People’s
Servant party. This move not only solves the problem of putting him in a
strictly advisory role, but it also advances the agenda of President’s Office
head Andriy Yermak of building a group in government to offset the influence of
Ihor Kolomoisky. Not only is Saakashvili despised by Kolomoisky, but he is also
loathed by internal affairs minister Arsen Avakov, who has a tight alliance
with the billionaire.

Although Saakashvili wanted to become a deputy prime
minister, he has nonetheless achieved his goal – which he has worked towards
for five years – of becoming a player in Kyiv politics with this appointment.
This is an advisory position, but we expect the ambitious, assertive
Saakashvili to squeeze the most out of it and become among the most visible and
recognized politicians in Ukraine very quickly.

Being the crafty political player that he is,
Saakashvili will not challenge Zelensky, or attempt to step on his toes, for as
long as his resilient poll ratings remain as high as they are now. Yet he will
certainly go on the attack if they plummet, which is what happened when
Saakashvili began threatening the authority of former President Poroshenko when
being restrained as Odesa regional administration head.

Finally, we don’t expect Georgia to sever its
critical relations with Ukraine – over Saakashvili’s appointment – amid the
ongoing Russian aggression in Donbas. We expect something along the lines of a
note of protest to the Zelensky administration.