![]() ![]() Sharp criticism of prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s government is widespread and diverse in Ukraine: some bemoan his IMF-stipulated cost-cutting measures, while others say he is too meek with reforms and is failing to rip out the massive graft, cronyism and bureaucracy that continue to stifle the country.īorovik came to Odessa after reportedly falling out with Yatsenyuk in Kiev, and now Saakashvili is in open conflict with the embattled premier. The government’s rhetoric is all right but they’re working at the wrong speed and they’re not following things through.” We want to show it’s possible to work cleanly here. ![]() “We are saying ‘Go and raise your money, and we will protect you from having to pay bribes’. “We want to take the state out of business,” Borovik said. The plan envisages sweeping change not only on the local level – like privatising Odessa’s port and creating a quick, computerised and bribe-free system of customs clearance – but also nationally, with the introduction of a massive privatisation programme, flat tax rate and host of other pro-business measures. The Misha-and-Sasha show is making a big noise in Ukrainian politics, as the governor of Odessa region and his adviser seek to shake up not only the province but Odessa city and, in the process, the entire country.Īt the conference, Borovik presented an “Odessa package of reforms”, which reflect “what the central powers are not doing, but should have done in the last year”. His boss is more flamboyant but no less of a curiosity: Mikheil Saakashvili, leader of Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution and its president for almost a decade, but now charged with abuse of power in his homeland. A dressing downĭressed in jeans and a polo shirt and eschewing “Alexander” for the familiar “Sasha”, Borovik is a rarity in Odessa – a man of great ambition who does not express it through a lavish wardrobe, fleet of armoured cars and battalion of bodyguards. The event's suitably breezy host was Sasha Borovik, a former Microsoft executive who has returned from the US to his country of birth to help it smash the endemic corruption and Russian domination that sparked a 2014 revolution. Into this morass has stepped a team of rather unlikely characters, and it was they who were behind the appeal to “make love not war” in Odessa. ![]()
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