French aristocrat Duc de Richelieu, a czarist Russia governor, turned the city of Odesa on the Black Sea from a provincial backwater into a thriving metropolis in the early 19th century.
Another foreigner, former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, faces a similarly daunting challenge after being appointed oblast governor last week.
Saakashvili must reduce the Black Sea port city’s pervasive corruption and turn it into an outpost against Russian imperialism. Some think the fate of Ukraine’s reforms will depend on Saakashvili’s performance in the oblast with 2.4 million people.
“We’ll set an example for the rest of Ukraine to follow,” Saakashvili, 47, told reporters on May 30.
Saakashvili, president of Georgia from 2004-2013, turned the Black Sea nation into one of the most attractive places for doing business. But he also suffered a big setback when Russia invaded Georgia and took away its control of Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions in 2008. He lost popularity and elections two years ago, however, and is a fugitive on corruption charges, which he believes to be politically motivated.
“If Odesa falls, God forbid, then Georgia may also be wiped off the map,” Saakashvili, a graduate of Columbia University and Kyiv’s Shevchenko Univeristy, said in an interview with BBC published on June 1. “(Odesa) is a real frontline against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and corruption, and it will set new standards for Ukraine and the whole region.”
Vitaly Ustimenko, an Odesa activist, praised Saakashvili’s appointment and said that he will be popular if he makes inroads against corruption. “In Kyiv, you don’t even realize how big this problem is in Odesa,” Ustimenko said by phone. “There’s more corruption here than in the rest of Ukraine.”
Saakashvili’s predecessor, Ihor Palytsa, made little progress in fighting corruption following his appointment in May 2014, Ustimenko said. He is an ally of billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, who governed Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and was forced out by President Petro Poroshenko in March.
Another challenge that Saakashvili faces is Kremlin-supported separatism and terrorism. A key part of his job will be to stop Russian encroachment.
Odesa has become a major site of terrorist attacks that Ukrainian authorities blame on Russian intelligence agencies and their separatist proxies.
Another threat comes from Moldova’s Kremlin-backed breakaway republic of Transnistria nearby. Tensions have increased after Ukraine on May 21 terminated a treaty that allowed Russia to send its troops and military supplies through Ukraine to Transnistria. Russia has 3,000 troops in the republic, according to the Information Resistance group.
Transdniester has also reportedly been used to send separatists and terrorists to Odesa – a charge that Russia denies.
Some speculate that Russia could try to create a land bridge through Odesa linking its separatist proxies in Donbas with its its Transnistria foothold.
Since Russia will not be able to supply its Transniester troops, it will be hard for it to use them for a full-scale military operation, Vyacheslav Tseluiko, an expert at the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, told the Kyiv Post. However, the Kremlin could use its military presence in Transdniester to send subversive groups to Odesa Oblast and to draw away some Ukrainian troops from the west if combined Russian-separatist forces approach Odesa from the east, he added.
If Saakashvili succeeds, he may turn Odesa into a global tourist destination. He has compared the city with the Georgian port of Batumi, which became a thriving tourist destination under his presidency. He said Odesa’s potential is “10 times more than that of Batumi.”
“Odesa can be turned into a world-class miracle,” Saakashvili said. “I have been heartbroken and wondered how they managed not to develop this breathtaking place.”
Saakashvili’s team and powers are being closely watched.
“If he has a carte blanche, there’s a high chance that there will be results,” political analyst Vitaliy Bala of the Situation Modeling Agency said.
Saakashvili said earlier this month that Poroshenko had promised not to interfere in his human resource policy.
Ukrainian media reported on June 1, citing sources at the Presidential Administration, that former Georgian Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili would be appointed Odesa Oblast’s top prosecutor. Meriko Okeya, a spokeswoman for Saakashvili, said by phone that she could not comment on the issue.
Saakashvili told Georgia’s Rustavi-2 TV channel on May 31 that he would fire 24 of the region’s 27 district heads. He also said that he would launch a competitive hiring process and that anyone who would try to remain in office due to cronyism would be immediately fired.
“Both Saakashvili and Poroshenko staked their all,” Bala said. “They have become hostages of that success.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected]
