Nolan Peterson
KYIV, Ukraine—Mikheil Saakashvili sits at a desk devoid of any photos or personal memorabilia.
On this day, the 48-year-old former Georgian president has only been on the job for four days as leader of a startup Ukrainian opposition political party called Wave.
This is the next chapter of Saakashvili’s anti-corruption crusade following his resignation as governor of Ukraine’s Odesa Oblast on Nov. 7 in protest of widespread corruption among Ukrainian officials.
Now, he hopes to harness a global anti-establishment movement, which he thinks helped Donald Trump win the White House. The sometimes controversial Saakashvili aims to rid Ukraine of corruption by installing a new generation of politicians who will set the country on an irreversible path to escape Russian influence.
“We had a revolution with lots of casualties,” he told The Daily Signal during an interview. “And every time a revolution happens, people have a right to expect revolutionary changes.”
Saakashvili leaned back and stroked the lapel of his striped blue blazer as he spoke English fluently and flawlessly, in a casual, but emphatic, manner. (He also speaks Georgian, Ukrainian, French, and Russian.)
In a one-on-one interview, the onetime Georgian president’s replies are measured, focused, bordering on scripted—often coming before the question has ended.
“Why should Americans care about what happens in Ukraine?” this correspondent asked.
Without missing a beat, Saakashvili replied: “Because Ukraine’s story is about the same ideas that Americans traditionally stand up for. It’s about freedom, self-government by the people … everything that America stands for is also here in Ukraine.”
He added: “And to send a signal that America is helping Ukraine to defend itself by giving weapons. To help Ukraine defend itself, that’s a very American idea.”
Falling Out
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko granted Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship in 2015 and appointed him governor of the Odesa Oblast, which comprises the Black Sea port city of Odesa—Ukraine’s most important shipping hub.
Poroshenko, ostensibly, brought Saakashvili in to shake things up as part of a nationwide push to root out corruption in the wake of Ukraine’s pro-Western 2014 revolution.
But Saakashvili said he was quickly frustrated by what he claimed to be stonewalling by Poroshenko and the majority of Ukraine’s political class in implementing anti-corruption reforms.
“The first year, year and a half after the revolution, you had a sense that something was moving,” he said. “Now Ukrainians think the revolution failed, that’s the problem.”
Saakashvili said he no longer has confidence in Poroshenko’s leadership.
“He tried to have it both ways,” Saakashvili said of the Ukrainian president. “The reforms have turned into an imitation of reforms.”
On Nov. 11, four days after quitting his post in Odesa, Saakashvili announced at a press conference the creation of a new Ukrainian political party focused on rooting out corruption and elevating a younger generation to power.
“I have huge confidence in the new, younger Ukrainian generation,” Saakashvili said. “They’re amazing. Ukraine has huge potential to become a real European superpower.”
At that same press event, Saakashvili called for early parliamentary elections. It was a controversial move; spurring accusations it would play into Russian efforts to subvert Ukraine’s political process.
During a Nov. 11 press conference in Kyiv (the same day Saakashvili called for early elections) the head of the Security Service of Ukraine said authorities had evidence of a Russian plot to bring about “early parliamentary elections in our country in order to bring pro-Russian forces to power, exclusively with a view to revise the European course and change the foreign policy vector of our state.”
Justifying his call for early elections, Saakashvili said Ukraine is teetering on another revolution, or possibly even a coup, and early elections are a last-ditch chance to prove to the Ukrainian electorate that real change is still possible at the ballot box.
“We are running against the clock to prevent chaos,” Saakashvili told The Daily Signal, defending early elections.
He added: “Either you have an armed takeover, or some sort of armed chaos, or you have a restoration of old regime, or you have some sort of democratic transformation with fast reforms. And right now I would say, as it looks, chaos and armed insurrection is much more likely than the other two scenarios. And that’s what’s worrying me a lot.”
Fresh Faces
Saakashvili led Georgia through a devastating war with Russia in 2008, earning him the ire of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as critics in Georgia for his conduct of the war.
He took a hard line against organized crime and corruption as president. Many in the West praised his efforts (including Trump, who called Saakashvili a model reformer in 2012), but he also met resistance from much of the old guard in Georgia.
Saakashvili’s rough and tumble style, and penchant for not mincing words, has also earned him pushback in his adoptive Ukraine...
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