Thomas De Waal: “Saakashvili’s Leave will be Healthy Development for Georgia”

Tom de Waal, a senior associate in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment thinks that “Saakashvili’s leave will be healthy development for Georgia.”

Waal stated the corresponding with the radio Liberty during the visit to Tbilisi to present the Georgian translation of his research “Georgia’s Choices: Charting a Future in Uncertain Times.”

According to him, “it is logical that Saakashvili has made no statement regarding his future yet.”

“When he makes a decision, he will not be the same Mikheil Saakashvili. He will either be a person who leaves the political stage and is weak or the one who is going to become the Prime Minister and will be criticized for it. That is why he does not hurry to make decision and protracts the time. Of course, it depends on external factors as well. Personally I think that leaving the political stage will be Mikheil Saakashvili’s big achievement as a healthy development for Georgia. If the West clearly states that “Constitution gives him possibility to hold the post of Prime-Minister, but they have negative attitude towards it”, this will influence the developments,” – states Waal.

As for the possibility of assigning Vano Merabishvili, Minister of Foreign Affairs to the post of Prime Minister, according to Waal, he, as an external observer finds it hard to discuss this matter. However, he thinks that “Merabishvili is not a public politician. He is more like a figure behind the scenes. So I do not think that it will be healthy if he becomes such a strong figure.”

“The government solved big problems related with crimes and every day corruption with the help of Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). This is a big achievement, however, on the others hand, unfortunately MIA is not accountable towards other branches of government,” – added Waal.
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