“Kiev bets on Georgia – A slap in Putin’s face” (Exclusive)

On December 3rd, deputies of Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada voted in a new cabinet of ministers. This is the first time when these posts were given to foreign citizens: Namely, former Georgian Minister of Health and the rector of Tbilisi State University, Alexander Kvitashvili, who became Ukraine’s new minister of healthcare. There is also a heated discussion regarding the appointment of Eka Zguladze, Georgia’s former minister of internal affairs, as Vice Internal Minister of Ukraine.

VICTOR NEBO¬ZHENKO, the Ukrainian political scientist and director of the sociological service Ukrainian Barometer, considers President Petro Poroshenko’s appointment of Kvita¬shvili to be a personal insult to Putin:

– Friendship between Ukrainians and Georgians upsets Putin greatly. He hates Georgians, just as he hates Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians. Also, there is a stereotypical fear at play: A Georgian in a Ukrainian ministry today means a Georgian in the Kremlin tomorrow. However, it is not important to Poroshenko where his specialists hail from. What matters is his diplomatic success in opposing Russia. Moscow considers Ukraine to be its zone of direct influence. Thus the appointment of former high-ranking Georgian officials as Ukrainian ministers is akin to spitting in the Kremlin’s face.

Yet the appointment of Kvitashvili to the post of Minister of Healthcare is a personal choice of Ukraine’s president. Kvitashvili’s sublime professional qualities or work experience are arbitrary in this case; he simply satisfied the chief criteria of Poroshenko – loyalty.

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