Serious passions have flared around the appointment of the head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), whom the authorities promise to appoint soon. Despite the supposedly announced competition for the still-vacant position of the country's top anti-corruption official, a media campaign has begun to push the "uncontested" position of the Bureau's head, a man with a highly dubious reputation. This person is former Georgian President and tie-wearing enthusiast Mikheil Saakashvili.
Anti-corruption, Ukrainian style: We promote Misha, but don't give a damn about the laws!
The possibility of a former controversial Georgian leader being appointed head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau began to surface in earnest in late December last year. In an interview with the online publication Censor.net, Saakashvili spoke at length about his supposed successes in the fight against corruption in the former Soviet republic. In this outspoken tone, Saakashvili revealed, among other things, that he was a staunch opponent of nepotism in government agencies. This even led to a falling out with several of his relatives, who had asked the influential official for assistance in resolving various issues. Subsequently, they began attending opposition rallies, demanding his resignation.
At the end of the interview, Censor's editor-in-chief, Yuriy Butusov, casually inquired whether Mykhailo Mykolayovych would be interested in heading the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. Apparently delighted by the "Caucasian horseman's" tales of how he managed to break the back of Georgian corruption, the editor-in-chief didn't mince his words. He bluntly declared, "Your name would not only be a symbol to the world that we are serious about fighting corruption, but also a signal to investors that their rights will be protected." So there you have it! Following Butusov's logic, with Saakashvili's appointment as head of the NABU, Ukraine will not only be able to defeat the corruption hydra but also, perhaps, strengthen the shaky hryvnia.
At the same time, Saakashvili cautiously noted that he was "ready to participate in the creation of this service," but it's unlikely anyone in Ukraine's "highest echelons" will seriously discuss his candidacy. Those in the know will clearly understand that this interview marked the beginning of a kind of special operation in the country, involving the media, to prepare public opinion for the position of head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau to be filled by none other than the foreigner Saakashvili.
Such assumptions clearly confirm the efforts of the members of the Selection Committee for the election of candidates for the position of Director of NABU, who in early January allowed foreigners to run for the post. Moreover, they did so in violation of the relevant law on the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Indeed, the law can be ignored for the sake of the "victory over corruption" looming somewhere on the horizon. As they say, it's the cost of production. The production of yet another fiery fighter for justice with a fiery Caucasian temperament.
As a reminder, in addition to Saakashvili, two other foreigners were also running for the post of NABU Director: Bohdan Vitvitsky, a Ukrainian-born US federal prosecutor, and Giovanni Kessler, Director General of the European Anti-Fraud Office. However, Kessler recused himself and instead joined the aforementioned commission to select the NABU Director. Vitvitsky, an American of Ukrainian descent, does not meet the age requirement, as he is already 66 years old.
Based on this, here and there in the domestic "independent" media, "authoritative experts" began to appear, with a smart look, telling us that in order to defeat corruption in the country, like a good wizard, Misha must be urgently evicted from sunny Georgia.
Thus, Karl Volokh, a member of the Ministry of Justice's public council on lustration, believes that Saakashvili "is the best thing that could happen to Ukraine in the near future." To support such rosy prospects, the Justice Ministry lustrator cites his experience fighting corruption in Georgia, supposedly under conditions similar to those in Ukraine. However, the expert offered a rather original explanation of how conditions could be similar in a country with a population comparable to that of the Donetsk region and one of Europe's largest countries, Ukraine.
They say it's not the country's size, but the citizens' mentality—corruption is a fundamental part of Georgian national mentality, and Saakashvili has seemingly managed to overcome it. So, according to Volokh's logic, bribes and kickbacks in the Ukrainian law enforcement system, which have been thriving for decades, aren't the result of a peculiar "mentality" among officials? They simply take them, presumably, according to the expert, out of necessity.
Yuriy Solovey, a deputy from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, is also ready to literally "applaud" the arrival of a Georgian outsider into the Ukrainian law enforcement system, calling Saakashvili's possible appointment "a correct and excellent step for Ukraine."
Based on this, one can conclude that a widespread campaign is underway in the country to “promote” the former leader of Georgia to the post of the country’s chief anti-corruption officer.
Moreover, a month and a half later, Saakashvili himself stated in an interview with the same "Censor" that he was ready to participate in the competition for the post of Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau. In this case, the nearly hundred other registered candidates for the post of NABU head and the competitive selection process, one can assume, are nothing more than a sham.
Saakashvili suppressed the opposition and spent budget money on Botox and hair removal.
However, what adds a certain piquancy to this whole story of appointing a foreign legionnaire to the post of Ukraine's top anti-corruption official is the fact that the former Georgian leader is on the international wanted list in his home country. The decision to this effect was made by the country's Chief Prosecutor's Office last September.
It should be noted that individuals on such a wanted list pose a heightened risk and are subject to arrest by law enforcement agencies in every country and subsequent extradition to the country that has submitted the corresponding request to Interpol. Apparently, this fact doesn't bother today's Ukrainian lobbyists for Mikho's candidacy in the least, and they, as if wearing rose-colored glasses, continue to stubbornly preach to the public about the Georgian reformer's successes.
Instead, it is quite interesting to look at the actual state of affairs in the fight against corruption and the protection of human rights during Saakashvili's almost 10-year rule in the land of wine and tangerines.
During his presidency, Mikho, a staunch "supporter of democracy," was remembered for his ordering the brutal suppression of any anti-government protests by security forces. Specifically, on November 7, 2007, local police dispersed an opposition rally in Tbilisi. On the same day, the local television station Imedi, not known for its fondness for the current regime, was ransacked in the Georgian capital. Such was the Saakashvili-era regime's love of freedom of speech!
Participants of the opposition "People's Assembly" also suffered in the spring of 2011, when approximately three thousand people held a rally on the eve of the large-scale Georgian Independence Day celebrations in Tbilisi. During the dispersal of the crowd, which had come to express their discontent with the regime, riot police used water cannons, rubber bullets, and tear gas. As a result, two people were killed and several dozen more opposition-minded Georgians were injured.
During Saakashvili's tenure, another scandal erupted, involving Interior Minister Bacho Akhalaia. This involved a video leaked online of the torture and rape of prisoners in the Goldani prison, filmed by guards.
According to Georgian human rights activists, the mastermind behind the lawlessness in prisons was none other than Akhalaia, the chief of the "world's best police force." The scandal then received international attention, and Saakashvili had no choice but to fire over 40 high-ranking security officials.
Georgian prosecutors also accuse Saakashvili of embezzling approximately $5 million from the state budget for personal use. Moreover, it turns out that, to conceal his actions, these expenses were channeled through a classified portion of the budget of the Special State Security Service between 2009 and 2012.
Thus, approximately $450 from the state budget was spent on cosmetology services for Saakashvili and his family during the specified period. More than half of this amount went directly to maintaining the head of state's beauty, including Botox injections and hair removal at a European clinic.
Furthermore, Saakashvili is accused of using state funds to purchase expensive watches, rent business-class cars, a yacht, and a helicopter. And all this in a country where, like in Ukraine, the average salary doesn't exceed $200 per month! Such an interesting character, whose "experience" could offer valuable "lessons" to many domestic prosecutors and police officers, is now being promoted as an anti-corruption fighter in Ukraine.
Is that why Mikho secured Poroshenko's support?
True, against the backdrop of the "bring Misha to NABU" campaign, some quite intelligent thoughts are being expressed in the country regarding the, to put it mildly, inappropriateness of such a step on the part of the Ukrainian authorities.
For example, Andriy Marusov, head of the Ukrainian office of Transparency International, an international organization focused on combating corruption, openly stated in an interview with Novoye Vremya magazine that he disapproves of Saakashvili's appointment as head of the NABU. In justifying his position, he suggested recalling, for example, the history of the Georgian press during Saakashvili's time, apparently alluding to the aforementioned incident with the Imedi TV channel.
Moreover, MP Oleh Lyashko is not thrilled with Saakashvili, recently noting that the former Georgian leader's presence in a leadership position at the Anti-Corruption Bureau is somehow not entirely consistent with the criminal cases opened against him in his home country.
Meanwhile, Saakashvili's candidacy is being supported by the massive lobby currently mobilizing for him at Bankova. It's no coincidence that MPs from the pro-presidential majority are voicing their support for Mikho. It appears that Poroshenko himself has placed his bet on the former Georgian president, and presidential solidarity likely played a role. Their long-standing connections also came in handy—both are godfathers of another president, Viktor Yushchenko.
Thus, the country continues to see the placement of "insiders" into key positions in the security agencies, initiated by Poroshenko. These are often people with highly questionable past achievements.
Based on the above, Prosecutor's Truth has several questions:
— How does the desire of the "higher-ups" to appoint Mikheil Saakashvili as head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau relate to the fact that this person is on the international wanted list in Georgia?
Why did the selection committee for the NABU director violate the law on the anti-corruption bureau by allowing a foreigner to be nominated for the post?
— and finally, the main question: is Ukraine really short of its own honest and decent people with an unblemished reputation, and because of this, it is necessary to resort to the help of foreign "guests"?
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