There was an orchestra, songs, dancing, and a real hustle around the journalists. That's how they welcomed the fugitive Georgian Saakashvili in the Ukrainian airport of Borispol two hours ago. Despite all his notorious deeds, Zelensky restored his Ukrainian passport, which was taken away by Poroshenko. The new president will find it much harder to recover the secret computer servers of the National Security Council. Unlike Saakashvili, it's unknown where Poroshenko sent them to.
Anton Lyadov's reporting.
"Quiet! Quiet!"
There are crowds of swearing journalists, hustling people, shouts, "Who lost an iPhone?" They're meeting Mikhail Saakashvili with songs and dancing. They hang a little boy on Saakashvili's neck, who doesn't seem to understand what's going on, they make him kiss an icon... Before the interview, Saakashvili collected microphones from the journalists so that everyone could hear him.
Mikhail Saakashvili: "By this move, Zelensky showed that he's capable of bold, fast decisions. This dude is as good as his word".
The dude, as Saakashvili called him, didn't come to meet him. He said that he had a lot of work to do. As proof, he posted a photo with the shawarma he was eating. As for Saakashvili, he was evidently prepared for this trip. He arrived at the airport in a suit, but without a tie. He stayed for a while in the lounge. Upon seeing a The Sixty Minutes film crew, he literally broke into a smile.
- What we really interested in is the relationship between our countries, Russia and Ukraine. What do you think, will it work out? What should be done?
- It will definitely work out, as soon as Ukraine has its legal borders restored.
- You know, Crimea will never be returned to Ukraine. What should be done, are there any alternatives?
- Then, we'll sit under the Ukrainian flag for some time.
Judging by the following conversation, already on the plane, the team was ready for action. Member of Parliament Vitaly Kupriy was on the same flight. In April of 2014, he worked as an advisor to oligarch Kolomoisky, who, at that point, was the governor of Dnepropetrovsk Oblast.
- What are your views on the development of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine?
Vitaly Kupriy: Let the president answer this question, the president is in charge of foreign policy.
- What do you think, what would you advise the president?
- To start developing nuclear weapons.
It's not clear if the people, who met them in the airport with peaceful chants, knew about those plans. The man, who made himself known to Ukrainians with his attempts to sell the port of Odessa piecemeal during his governorship, was basically let back into Ukraine by Zelensky himself. Saakashvili says that, should Zelensky ask for it, he will certainly offer him advice. On the internet, he has been posting videos to the blog where he shared his recipes. Here's an example, the video is called "Reforms in Five Minutes. How to Fight Corruption?"
"In neighboring Romania, they asked witches for help to fight corruption and increase the efficiency of the government's work. Of course, we could try that. But, after I saw them, I don't think so. We have our own experience. It has nothing to do with witches, it concerns young people".
It's not yet clear if Saakashvili will place his bet on witches or 20-year-old ministers, but it's already known that his party, but not himself, will participate in the next parliamentary election. Poroshenko will hardly like this. Who knows what other secrets of his could be revealed by Saakashvili? Poroshenko thoroughly prepared his moving out of the presidential administration.
Alexander Danilyuk, Security Council: "There were two big monitors here, transmitting visuals. So much for the civilized shift of power. There is nothing left, except the flags".
The most secret room in the Ukraine presidential administration. They stripped the everything bare, as the new head of the council complains. They even took the twelve chairs that used to surround the desk. Poroshenko's people have already offered an excuse. They say that all of the equipment and furniture was rented and is now returned to the owner. It turns out that the state secrets, along with the servers, have gone to nobody-knows-where. Former head of the Security Council Turchinov comforts everyone by saying that the super-table, the monitor, and all the copies of the documents are in his office.
- Are there any secret remote controls, secret buttons?
Alexander Turchinov: Dasha, I keep no secrets from you.
Many people are concerned with the secrets of Ukrainian politics before the parliamentary election. Here's one of the new faces. Olga Polyakova has declared the launch of her party today. She's a singer.
"I'm the queen of the night today for sure.
I'm not hiding my eyes and I won't cry".
The first political questions are already on her agenda.
"Now, we need a name for our party. There are some cool names, like "Olya Polyakova's Party," or POPA [means "butt" in Russian], we need to add the word "beautiful" to the name then, "Beautiful POPA".
There are less than two months left until we know who among the new faces make it into the new parliament.
Anton Lyadov, Anna Kolk, Alexander Shevchuk, and Pavel Alexeev, VESTI.
