BBC quotes Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Brian Mefford on former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s appointment as Odessa’s new governor:
Brian Mefford, a political analyst who keeps a blog on Ukrainian politics, wrote recently that President Poroshenko had killed two birds with one stone with the appointment: he had replaced the previous governor, widely seen as close to Ukrainian billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, without shifting “the balance of power amongst competing business interests in the region”, as a locally-chosen candidate would have done.
“In appointing Saakashvili as Odessa governor, it would appear that Poroshenko has assigned a strong leader to govern a key region under pressure by the Russians,” he wrote.