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Ukrainian lawmaker: Abromavicius’s resignation plays into Saakashvili’s hands

This will help Arseniy Yatsenyuk retain the PM’s seat, and against the background of his incompetent rule Mikheil Saakashvili may rise to power in the next parliamentary elections, a lawmaker believes
Aivaras Abromavicius (center) EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY
Aivaras Abromavicius (center)
© EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY

KIEV, February 4. /TASS/. Ukrainian Economic Development Minister Aivaras Abromavicius’s resignation statement will help Arseniy Yatsenyuk retain the prime-minister’s seat. Which, in turn, plays into the hands of the Odessa Region’s governor Mikheil Saakashvili, a member of the Opposition Bloc in the Ukrainian parliament, Vadim Rabinovich, told the media on Thursday.

"Saakashvili benefits a lot from Yatsenyuk’s premiership. Against the background of his incompetent rule he may rise to power in the next parliamentary elections," Rabinovich said.

Before declaring his resignation Abromavicius had met with Saakashvili and a group of other people, apparently for discussing the possibility of keeping Yatsenyuk in the prime minister’s seat. "They wish Yatsenyuk to stay at the head of the Cabinet," Rabinovich said. "If a new prime minster takes over now and begins to build a new, better country right away, what will happen to Saakashvili’s own ambitious plans?"

The oppositional politician believes that the unfolding political crisis is crucial for the "team of reformers" and its plans for seizing power in the country. "Abromavicius had ostensibly been unaware of embezzlement and corruption for a whole year only to turn an attentive eye to them after a meeting with Saakashvili. Some very strange things are happening these days. For some reason we leave them unnoticed. It’s creeping counter-revolution, seizure of power by certain people who have come to make Ukraine a springboard for their imperial plots," Rabinovich said.

He described Abromavicius’s statement as a very cunning move. "Instead of explaining in a government report how he ruined the country’s economy he will now position himself as a ‘hero’ and ‘anti-corruption crusader’," Rabinovich said. He believes that the Ukrainian Security Service should now look into affair, because it is fraught with a threat to national security.

Experts believe that Saakashvili is playing his own game in which the prime minister’s office is the prize to win, when the parliamentary coalition that does not exist de facto, will cease to exist de jure. The stake now is on early parliamentary elections. Few experts doubt that early elections will be imminent. The question remains when they are to be called - either in the spring or in the autumn of 2016.

Some political scientists do not rule out that Abromavicius will join the Saakashvili-led anti-corruption forum. On December 23, 2015 Saakashvili declared he was creating a wide anti-corruption movement in Ukraine outside all political parties. "We are beginning Ukraine’s renewal," Saakashvili told the media on the sidelines of the anti-corruption forum, held under the motto For Clean Ukraine. Observers believe that Saakashvili’s political party would soon assume the same name.