Rose Revolution hero runs into a wall of debauchery in Odessa

[bemildred]

When former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was appointed governor of the Odessa region in May, Ukraine's president and fawning media hailed the brash, Western-educated reformer as the new sheriff in town who would clean up the Black Sea port's legendary corruption.

You could almost hear the oligarchs laughing.

Six months into the job, Saakashvili has run into the wall of entrenched back-scratching and self-interest that for centuries have typified Odessa's way of life. He has suffered a major defeat at the ballot box, with his handpicked candidate for mayor last month losing badly to a Kremlin crony — a devil the public knows — and his few bold initiatives aimed at breaking the bribery pandemic have succeeded in constraining the palm-greasing without installing functional alternatives in its place.

Saakashvili gained a reputation in his native Georgia for tough action against criminal gangs and powerful kingpins after leading the bloodless 2003 Rose Revolution against self-serving vestiges of the Soviet era.

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-ukraine-odessa-saakashvili-20151124-story.html

[doxyluv13]

1. This Guys is So Stupid He Attacked South Ossetia

And got his tiny country into a war with Russia.

[bemildred]

2. He is an obedient tool, is what he is.

And none too bright or he would not get anywhere near that mess in Ukraine.