Does Saakashvili Want to Change the Power in Ukraine?

• 10.25.2017, 19:48
•  Europe,  World

Российская газета

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that the organizers of the protest near the Verkhovna Rada will not be able to destabilize the situation in the country, "the people will not allow" chaos. According to Poroshenko, the organizers of the protest want to nullify all the positive steps after the Ukranian people literally suffered, Ria.ru reports. 

Ukraine's Prosecutor-General Yuriy Luzenko, in turn, said that supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili, who organized a protest near the Verkhovna Rada, are planning to forcibly carry out a coup. He reminded that the right to peaceful demonstrations did not mean preparation of coup d'etat. According to the Prosecutor General, a group of 150-200 people is trying to overthrow the government receiving funding from abroad. Lutsenko as well as Poroshenko expressed conviction that the organizers of the protest will not succeed in reaching their goals.

Earlier, the leader of the "New Forces Movement" Mikheil Saakashvili said that the current president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, is worse than his predecessor Viktor Yanukovych. Saakashvili made such a statement after announcing that some of his supporters were arrested and extradited to Georgia by Poroshenko's order, Lenta.ru reports. In addition, the former governor of Odessa proposed several reforms to change Ukraine within just five weeks. Speaking with the crowd near the Verkhovna Rada, he called his proposals a plan for the country's salvation. Saakashvili added that the state should be ready for "Ukraine without Poroshenko." According to him, after the fall of Poroshenko, Ukraine will turn into a superpower that will dictate conditions to Europe.

It should be noted that Saakashvili's proposed plan implies impeachment of Poroshenko, depriving MPs of immunity, adoption of laws on oligarchs as well as weapons. Besides, Saakashvili offered to abolish the National Guard and the Ukrainian Security Service.

Protest action, organized by Saakashvili's "New Forces Movement," continues near the Verkhovna Rada from October 17, about a month after former governor of Odessa Saakashvili was deprived of Ukrainian citizenship. The demonstrators have already installed tents in front of Rada. It should be noted that the largest number of people (4-5 thousands) took part in the protest on the first day. The action will continue at least until November 7 and is directed against the actions of the current authorities. The demonstrators, including the "National Corps", "Liberty", "Batkivshina" and some non-governmental organizations' representatives, under the slogan "Big Political Reform," demanded the President of Ukraine to introduce bills to the parliament on anti-corruption court and impeachment within five days. So, last Thursday, Rada began to carry out a number of demands, for example sent the Law on Parliamentary Immunity to the Constitutional Court for review and began reconsidering the electoral legislation. In addition, Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov promised that the police will not disperse the protest, pledging to ensure the security of protesters.

After Avakov's statement, a number of experts noted that this protest was in the interests of the authorities, because the parties involved in the demonstration were really interested in holding snap elections in Rada. According to the law, the Ukrainian president and the parliamentary elections should take place in 2019. Let's mention that snap elections are possible only in case of the coalition collapse (Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity" and "National Front") or if Government is recognized dysfunctional. For Poroshenko's opponents, it is important that parliamentary elections be held before the presidential elections. The reason is that the opposition is convinced that Poroshenko will lose in case of early parliamentary elections, after which they will succeed in the presidential elections as well.