Former Georgian President Saakashvili Resigns as Governor of Odessa
ODESSA, Ukraine – Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili on Monday announced his resignation as governor of Ukraine’s Black Sea region of Odessa.
Saakashvili – who has lived in self-imposed exile since 2012 after being defeated by his bitter political rival Bidzina Ivanishvili – said he made his decision to step down after Ukrainian officials were forced to publicly declare their income.
“That was the last straw that broke my patience," said Saakashvili during his announcement.
The unprecedented declarations revealed the vast wealth of most of the ruling political class in the country, including Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
In his resignation speech, Saakashvili accused Ukrainian politicians of corruption and Poroshenko, personally, for supporting widespread graft in Ukraine’s wealthiest regions.
Saakashvili went on to accuse Poroshenko – who was once a close ally and friend – of supporting Odessa’s most powerful crime syndicates.
Odessa-native Poroshenko appointed Saakashvili as governor of the region in May 2015 in the hope that he and many of his reformist allies would engage in the same radical measures that were used in Georgia to eradicate corruption in the police force and state bureaucracies.
Saakashvili has frequently clashed with local politicians and many of Odessa’s civil society groups who openly opposed his efforts to overhaul the region’s lucrative business sectors, including Odessa’s huge port and customs office.
Speculation about Saakashvili’s future in Odessa has been swirling for months as his effectiveness in the region came into question and his relationship deteriorated over the last year.
Saakashvili suffered several public political defeats during his time as Odessa’s governor.
His handpicked choice for mayor of the key Black Sea city, Alexander Borovik, was trounced in a 2015 poll by the incumbent candidate, Gennady Trukhanov.
Trukhanov is a Russian citizen with close ties to the pro-Moscow former President Viktor Yanukovych and elements of the Russian mafia operating out of Odessa, according to the Panama Papers
Saakashvili had eyed the prime minister’s chair earlier this year when another of his political rivals, Arseny Yatsenyuk – a leader of the Euromaidan Revolution in 2013-14, resigned after the collapse of his coalition government in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.
Saakashvili had hoped to replace Yatsenyuk, but lost out on the job to Poroshenko’s protégé Volodymyr Groysman in March.
Most analysts believe Poroshenko’s decision to pass over Saakashvili in favor of Groysman officially ended the former allies’ working relationship.
In his resignation speech, Saakashvili touted his efforts to reform the Odessa region and bring it closer to EU standards of governance and transparency.
Saakashvili closed his announcement by saying he had no intention of retiring from public life and vowed to continue to push for radical reform in Ukraine as a private citizen through “an alliance of young, honest and like-minded forces.”
By Nicholas Waller