person:mikheil saakashvili

Ukrainian Minister, Governor in ’Street-Style’ Spat - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/12/15/world/europe/ap-eu-ukraine-reform-tensions.html

At the Monday meeting, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov challenged Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who now heads the Odessa region, about Saakashvili allegedly approaching a Russian tycoon about privatizing a big chemical plant.

Saakashvili “broke into hysterics ... I refrained from hitting him — splashed water in his face,” Avakov said on Facebook.

Ukrainian news reports said Saakashvili in turn accused Avakov of financing a private militia through corrupt means and demanded that video of the council session be made public.

Presidential spokesman Svyatoslav Tsegolko said on Facebook that “such street-style skirmishes shame the country.”

The incident highlighted both concerns over endemic corruption and the frequently boisterous politics in Ukraine, where fistfights in the parliament are not uncommon.

Incumbent Odesa Mayor Trukhanov declared winner in Oct. 25 mayoral election
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/politics/incumbent-odesa-mayor-trukhanov-declared-winner-in-oct-25-mayoral-election

The Odesa city elections commission has declared incumbent Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov the winner in the mayoral elections, even though Odesa regional administration chief Mikheil Saakashvili had suggested earlier that Trukhanov and his main rival should run in the second round.

The city elections commission head announced on Oct. 27 evening that Trukhanov had garnered nearly 139,000 votes, or 52.9 percent of all those who cast their ballots in the elections, so securing his victory in the first round.

Oleksandr Borovyk (Sasha Borovyk), an adviser to the Odesa regional administration head, came in second with 66,500 votes, or 25.7 percent of the vote. Former Odesa Mayor Eduard Hurvits came in third, having garnered 22,500 votes, or 8.5 percent of the vote.

H. Trukhanov était membre du Parti des Régions de Ianoukovytch.

Source: Sakvarelidze to become Odesa Oblast’s top prosecutor
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/source-sakvarelidze-to-become-odesa-oblasts-top-prosecutor-397848.html

Deputy Prosecutor General Davit Sakvarelidze will become Odesa Oblast’s chief prosecutor, a source familiar with the situation told the Kyiv Post on Sept. 14.

At the same time, he will keep his position as a deputy prosecutor general, the source said. The source suggested that the reason for the move was that Odesa Oblast Governor Mikheil Saakashvili needed a trusted man to crack down on corruption.

The source is not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity. Artem Demartino, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office, and Sakvarelidze’s spokesperson had no comment.

Sakvarelidze, who was Georgia’s first deputy prosecutor general from 2009 to 2012, is seen as close to Saakashvili, the ex-Georgian president. Saakashvili has announced a plan to crack down on corruption in Odesa Oblast, while Sakvarelidze launched an anti-corruption campaign at the Prosecutor General’s Office by arresting two top prosecutors in July.

The source also said that Sakvarelidze would “still be responsible for the open competition for the positions of top local prosecutors.”

Sakvarelidze oversees a reform of the Prosecutor General’s Office that envisages organizing a transparent and competitive hiring process for prosecutors. The source added that Sakvarelidze was still set to continue changing staff and work guidelines for the Prosecutor General’s Office and top regional prosecutors during the second stage of prosecutorial reform scheduled for next year.

S​aakashvili says Ukraine run by ’shadow’ oligarchic government
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/s-aakashvili-says-ukraine-run-by-shadow-oligarchic-government-397787.html

Ukraine is de facto run by a “shadow government” whose strings are pulled by oligarchs behind the scenes, Mikheil Saakashvili, ex-president of Georgia and governor of Odesa Oblast, said on Sept. 12 at the Yalta European Strategy forum in Kyiv.

“We certainly have the reality of some kind of shadow, parallel government,” he said. “You can describe Ukraine as a joint-stock company owned by oligarchs… Every oligarch owns his own judges, prosecutors and paramilitary units.”
[…]
In an apparent reference to the Right Sector and other nationalist groups, Saakashvili said that, as a result of a lack of reform, paramilitary groups were emerging to fill the void.

“This will create a further wave of chaos,” he said. “What we need to do is to speed up reform. It’s about whether Ukraine exists as a state or not.”

Whistleblower fired after accusing Poroshenko’s ally of corruption
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/whistleblower-fired-after-accusing-poroshenkos-ally-of-corruption-397656.h

Ukraine’s customs offices, long a cash cow for corrupt officials, have come under attack from two directions – Konstyantyn Likarchuk, deputy head of the State Fiscal Service, and Mikheil Saakashvili, the ex-Georgian president and reformist governor of Odesa Oblast.

The fallout from the affair has already cost Likarchuk his job. He was fired on Sept. 7 after accusing his boss, Roman Nasirov, of theft and restoring ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s corrupt customs schemes.

Meanwhile, Saakashvili accused Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his Cabinet of allegedly sabotaging measures designed to make customs in Odesa Oblast transparent and corruption-free.
Nasirov, who was a lawmaker in the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction before being appointed to head the State Fiscal Service, denied Likarchuk’s accusations. In turn, he accused the would-be whistleblower of incompetence and corruption.

To support his claims, Likarchuk published on Sept. 8 what appears to be a scanned copy of a property title to an apartment owned by Nasirov in London. Since Nasirov did not include this in his property declaration, he should be fired under Ukraine’s lustration law, Likarchuk wrote.

Likarchuk also said in August that Nasirov was re-introducing Yanukovych-era schemes by appointing allies of the ex-president and his former customs agency head, Ihor Kaletnik.

#Fact-checking #Saakashvili: Claims true – up to a point
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/fact-checking-saakashvili-claims-true-up-to-a-point-397654.html

Odesa Oblast Governor Mikheil Saakashvili on Sept. 3 lashed out at Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the government he leads in an interview with Channel 5, owned by President Petro Poroshenko.

The former Georgian president accused the Cabinet of Ministers and Yatsenyuk personally of sabotaging reforms and lobbying for oligarchs’ interests.

In three more specific claims, Saakashvili accused the Cabinet of protecting the head of the State Aviation Service, whom he said had taken decisions in favor of billionaire Igor Kolomoisky’s Ukraine International Airlines. He then accused the government of blocking Economic Development and Trade Minister Aivaras Abromavicius’ attempts to dismiss the heads of two state enterprises. And last, he alleged the Cabinet had foiled his plans to reform Odesa’s notoriously corrupt customs service.

Yatsenyuk countered on Sept. 4 that Saakashvili’s accusations were unfounded and claimed that the Cabinet had approved the governor’s requests.

“We are all in one team here. I understand his emotions because he bears all the responsibility for Odesa Oblast,” Yatsenyuk said. “But it is inappropriate for an ex-president to bring unfounded charges against the government.”

The Kyiv Post decided to dig deeper into four of Saakashvili’s claims, and see if there was any substance to them.

Claim 1: The Yatsenyuk Cabinet has protected the head of the State Aviation Service.
[…]
The Verdict: True

Claim 2: The Cabinet is blocking attempts to dismiss the heads of some state enterprises.
[…]
The Verdict: True – technically. But while the head of at least one enterprise is indeed still in his job, the Kyiv Post couldn’t find proof that the reason was because of cronyism among Yatsenyuk’s political allies.

Claim 3: The Yatsenyuk Cabinet is foiling Saakashvili’s plans to reform Odesa’s customs service.
[…]
The Verdict: Somewhat true. While not sabotaging the plan per se, the Cabinet appears to be meddling by moving the goalposts, making it more difficult for the reform to achieve its aims.

Claim 4: Yatsenyuk is in the thrall of the nation’s biggest oligarchs.
[…]
The Verdict: Not proven. Direct ties between Ukraine’s oligarchs and politicians are hard to pin down.

Ukraine president’s ally launches bid to oust discredited PM | The Times
▻http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article4549149.ece

One of President Poroshenko of Ukraine’s closest allies has accused the country’s prime minister of abusing his position by furthering the interests of Kiev’s richest oligarchs, in a move interpreted as the start of a plot to oust him.
Appearing on a TV channel owned by the president, Mikheil Saakashvili, the governor of Odessa and the former Georgian president, said that Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Ukrainian prime minister, had tried to help Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a billionaire businessman, to monopolise the country’s aviation industry. He said Mr Yatsenyuk had deliberately reinstated Denys Antoniuk, an ally of Mr Kolomoyskyi, as the head of…

#paywall

Le Times roule pour Saakachvili, semble-t-il.

S​aakashvili says Yatsenyuk’s Cabinet thwarts reforms, serves oligarchs
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/s-aakashvili-says-yatsenyuks-cabinet-thwarts-reforms-serves-oligarchs-3972

Mikheil Saakashvili has lashed out at Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his Cabinet, saying that they are sabotaging economic, customs and other reforms and serve oligarchs’ interests.

Saakashvili, the ex-Georgian President who became Odesa Oblast governor in May, has launched sweeping changes.

He has cracked down on corruption at the customs office and is planning to introduce faster registration procedures, cut government staff, increase their wages and replace them with new people.

Yet now all these changes, as well as reforms nationwide, are being scuttled by the Cabinet, he argues.
[…]
“Now the government is paralyzed,” Saakashvili said. “There must be a total reset of the Ukrainian government on all levels.”

Bien sûr tout cela est totalement désintéressé et pour le bien de son pays d’adoption. Il n’y a que quelques esprits chagrins pour faire remarquer que, simultanément…

A petition has been filed on the president’s site for appointing Saakashvili as prime minister, although he said he was not planning to become head of the government.

Saakashvili team seeks to revolutionize public relations policy
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/saakashvili-team-seeks-to-revolutionize-public-relations-policy-396268.htm

http://www.kyivpost.com/media/images/2015/08/21/p19t81599i1goc1ntu7cr1ocoosf4/original_big.jpg

Saakashvili’s team argue that by improving communication with the people on the ground and providing them with the services they need, they will drastically change their attitude towards the government. Specifically, they expect pro-Russian and anti-Kyiv sentiment in some parts of the region to subside as a result.
[…]
“Southern Ukraine is a territory of permanent lawlessness, and it is dominated by feudal lords,” Marushevska said.
The uncaring attitude of the authorities and a lack of basic public services is a rich breeding ground for Russian propaganda, which exploits these weaknesses to demonize Ukraine.

Je dois avouer que cet article m’a surtout séduit par l’illustration et notamment le nom du bled où se rend cet immense géorgien #petit_père_des_peuples.

https://stalinsmoustache.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/stalin-and-minorities-01a.jpg

Government’s duel with oligarchs switches to Odesa beach
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/business/governments-duel-with-oligarchs-switches-to-odesa-beach-394260.html

http://www.kyivpost.com/media/images/2015/07/25/p19r26emisb0gpv8q1s156b1l2k4/original_big.jpg

The public battle between Ukraine’s rich and powerful oligarchs and the government has shifted to the Black Sea port city of Odesa, and the current battleground – appropriately for a seaside city – is a beach.

Citing a broadly defined law in the Water Code that allows the public unimpeded access to shorelines, Odesa Governor Mikheil Saakashvili on July 20 ordered a fence to be removed made of concrete blocks and shattered glass that had prevented public access to a city beach.

The seashore area is part of a private residence that sits on land leased from the city government. The residence belongs to multi-millionaire property developer and former Party of Regions lawmaker Vasyl Khmelnytsky.

Khmelnytsky, in an emailed statement on July 24, said that on the day the concrete fence was removed, the city government had given him notice either to provide within 10 days permits for the leased land and other related documents, or to remove the barrier.

“But immediately after this (receiving the notice) the fence was demolished without any judicial ruling, without court executors and without even waiting for July 30, (the date) set by the city council,” Khmelnytsky said.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has cited legal hurdles and Interpol’s reluctance to put suspects on its wanted list as reasons for the slow pace of the investigations.

Minister: #Saakashvili will go from Georgian president to Odesa governor
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/minister-saakashvili-will-go-from-georgian-president-to-odesa-governor-389

In another move to curtail the influence of billionaire oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, President Petro Poroshenko is expected to name ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili as governor of Odesa Oblast.

Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Ihor Shevchenko said in a Facebook post on May 29 that the Cabinet of Ministers recommended the appointment of Saakashvili to the strategic oblast. Saakashvili has been a top adviser to Poroshenko.

“The final decision is up to the president of Ukraine, as stipulated by the Constitution,” Shevchenko wrote. There was no official announcement from the president’s website late on May 29.

Shevchenko told the Kyiv Post that Saakashvili would be a good appointment “in any place, because he is a meritocrat” and that the change is in the best interests of Ukraine.

Odesa Oblast is one of Ukraine’s most difficult regions because of its history of corruption as well as its strategic location as the top Black Sea port, no doubt coveted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

#Odessa

Plusieurs Géorgiens promus dans l’équipe gouvernementale ukrainienne avec pour mission : RÉFORMER !
Georgian reformer to spearhead changes at Ukrainian prosecutor’s office
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/georgian-reformer-to-spearhead-changes-at-ukrainian-prosecutors-office-380

A Georgian reformer became a deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine on Feb. 16 as part of a string of appointments drawing on the experience of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s team.
(…)
The new appointee, David Sakvarelidze, will oversee the reform of Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office and will be in charge of human resources and European integration, Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin said at a news briefing.

He was Tbilisi’s chief prosecutor and a deputy prosecutor general in 2008-2009 and Georgia’s first deputy prosecutor general in 2009-2012.
(…)
Sakvarelidze holds a law degree from Tbilisi State University, a political science degree from St. Bonaventure University in New York State and a public administration degree from Japan’s Toyo University Itakura.

His appointment comes on the heels of President Petro Poroshenko’s decision on Feb. 13 to make Saakashvili a presidential adviser and head of the Advisory International Council for Reforms.
(…)Georgians also spearhead reforms in other sectors.

In December, Ekaterina Zguladze-Glucksmann, who was first deputy interior minister in Georgia in 2005-2012, was appointed to the same post in Ukraine and will oversee the police reform and the creation of a new traffic police.

At the same time, Oleksandr Kvitashvili, who was Georgia’s healthcare, labor and social affairs minister in 2008-2010, became Ukraine’s healthcare minister to tackle a reform of the sector.

Pour Saakachvili, je citerai juste cet extrait de WP…

En politique étrangère, Saakachvili maintient des relations étroites avec la classe dirigeante américaine, ainsi qu’avec celle des autres pays de l’OTAN, et il est l’un des dirigeants de l’Alliance du GUAM. La Révolution des Roses menée par Saakachvili est décrite par la Maison-Blanche de George W. Bush comme l’un des mouvements les plus puissants des temps modernes, qui inspirera d’autres mouvements de libération. En septembre 2005, Tbilissi est la première capitale des anciens pays de l’URSS à baptiser une de ses rues au nom de George W. Bush.

Georgia is Having a Democratic Counterrevolution

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

►http://carnegieendowment.org/2012/10/02/georgia-is-having-democratic-counterrevolution/dyjg
Thomas de Waal Bloomberg, October 2, 2012

In Georgia today they are talking about the counterrevolution. The Oct. 1 parliamentary election in Georgia produced the kind of result that we don’t expect from elections in post- Soviet countries. The opposition won. The governing party of Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power in the country’s peaceful Rose Revolution of 2003, has been defeated by the Georgian Dream coalition, led by Georgia’s wealthiest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

This is the first time in 20 years that Georgia — or indeed any of its post-Soviet neighbors — has seen political change through the ballot box rather than from crowds on the streets, and Georgia should be congratulated for that. We should be clear that this wasn’t an election fought by European rules: Saakashvili and his government did everything in their power to ensure a victory, deploying state resources and a loyal media to buttress support for the ruling party.

Yet, under heavy Western pressure, they allowed the opposition to compete. To his credit, Saakashvili recognized a result that went against him.

Broadly speaking, Saakashvili and his government lost for two reasons. Over the past nine years they have made impressive reforms, modernizing the bureaucracy, eliminating petty corruption and tackling organized crime.

#géorgie #caucase #russie #élection

A Crucial Election in Georgia - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

►http://carnegieendowment.org/2012/09/11/crucial-election-in-georgia/drlp

Thomas de Waal September 11, 2012

Georgia Elections Georgia’s parliamentary election on October 1 will be its most important since the disputed polls of 2003 which led to the Rose Revolution and the subsequent election of Mikheil Saakashvili as president. The governing party, the United National Movement (UNM), is seeking to win a majority for a third time. The emergence of the Georgian Dream coalition led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili poses the most credible challenge yet to the elite that has governed Georgia for more than eight years.

#géorgie #caucase #élections #saakashvili