Some details of the joint work of the Polish politicians and organizations with the Ukrainian opposition were disclosed in the interview to WBJ Observer by Michał Dworczyk, the Head of the Sejm’s Committee on Liaison with Poles Abroad, also a member of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS).
“Renewal and reloading of the Ukrainian power is expected in nearest perspective. Ukrainian opposition is well aware that further gamble on the nationalistic theme in midst of crisis will bring no good eventually. Furthermore, patching up relations with Poland is one of the major vectors of the Ukrainian new political force [Rukh Novykh Syl]. All in all, Ukrainian political and economic decline prompts definite terms and priorities. One of them is the change of the course, that of foreign policy in particular, which is of prime importance for Ukraine now”, Michał Dworczyk stressed.
According to the PiS deputy, apart from Mikheil Saakashvili, head of Rukh Novykh Syl, members of his team, and Verkhovna Rada deputy Nadezhda Savchenko have been also working with the Polish spin doctors. “Former president of Georgia and a current Ukrainian opposition politician Mikheil Saakashvili has had series of talks with Jarosław Kaczyński to get the overwhelming support of the PiS leader. Ukrainian parliament member Nadiya Savchenko has been intensely cooperating with the Open Dialog Foundation, engaged in developing of partnership with Poland, as well. There are some politicians in the Saakashvilli’s team working with the Law and Justice Party, the Sejm deputy Andrzej Lewandowski, MEP Andrzej Grzyb, the Open Dialog Foundation, and other Polish organizations. Opposition politicians-reformists in Ukraine realize it quite well that close cooperation with Poland is necessary strategically, politically and economically. And they are already applying definite steps in the direction of the systemic interaction with various structures in Poland”, the Sejm deputy pointed.
Saakashvili’s initial contacts with the Kaczyńskis date back to the Revolution of Roses epoch when Georgia’s cooperation with the EU and NATO got more intense. But true rapprochement between Mikheil Saakashvili and Jarosław Kaczyński followed after the dramatic events on the heels of the NATO summit of 2008, war in South Ossetia and death of the Polish President Lech Kaczyński. In the summer of 2013, being not a bit scared by massive street protests against the Georgian president, Jarosław Kaczyński in person delivered to Saakashvili the document giving green light for his immigration into Poland with the safety guarantees from the Polish government.
As a Ukrainian citizen and governor of Odessa region Saakashvili used to conduct series of meetings with the Polish politicians and top officials. He also attended various formal events and even celebrated his birthday in Poland. Euromaidan Warsaw Foundation arranged a special ceremony in honor of the 48th anniversary of the former Georgian President, while Polish President Andrzej Duda and PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński congratulated Saakashvili and, according to his words, had confidential talks on the future of Ukraine with him.
In the aftermath of the negotiations with the Polish businessmen and PiS representatives on May 17-21, 2016, in Katowice, a decision on Saakashvili’s joining opposition and creation of a new political movement to exercise change of power in Ukraine was made. Saakashvili’s close associate and Ukraine’s former Deputy Prosecutor General David Sakvarelidze declared about this at the meeting of the Ukrainian Bar Association on May 25, 2016.
The concrete information on creation of the Rukh Novykh Syl appeared in mass media after Mikheil Saakashvili came back after a meeting with the political consultants and Nadiya Savchenko at the banquet on August 19, 2016, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.
It’s worth noting that cooperation between Mikheil Saakashvili and Nadiya Savchenko was also due to initiative of the Polish politicians who had been consistently striving to return her to Ukraine. It was exactly the vigorous activity of the Open Dialog Foundation, as well as of the Sejm deputy Andrzej Lewandowski and MEP Andrzej Grzyb, being in close nexus with this organization, that ensured wide publicity around the court proceedings on Savchenko’s case.
It appears the Polish assistance to Savchenko was followed by certain obligations. The office of the Open Dialog Foundation next to the premises of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine actually became the place of work for the Ukraine’s parliament deputy Savchenko.
Remarkably, Bankova Street is also the location of Mikheil Saakashvili’s party office. In his interview to the Georgian Broadcasting Company Rustavi 2, the leader of the Rukh Novykh Syl explained that the choice of his office location in the vicinity of the buildings accommodating Presidential Administration, Cabinet of Ministers and Parliament of Ukraine is far from being a play of chance. “We were guided by the Revolution of Roses experience in 2003. Our revolutionary office was at that time near to buildings of the Parliament and administrative offices, which helped us a lot when we stormed them”.
It appears the strong revolutionary sentiment of the Ukrainian opposition prompts the upcoming relevant action, and Michał Dworczyk in his interview to WBJ Observer only beefed up such a scenario. He said that the high-level PiS support of the Ukrainian opposition reformists is absolutely justified on the background of the present political crisis in Ukraine. “Renewal of the Ukrainian power by this or that way is inevitable under the present circumstances, and, as I’ve already mentioned it, the core cadre reserve has been already cooperating with Poland”, added Michał Dworczyk.
Source: WBJ Observer.