The New Great Game Round-Up: February 23, 2015

Uyghur Terrorists Making Headlines in Turkey- China-Indonesia, Victoria Nuland and USAID Go on South Caucasus Tour & More!
*The Great Game Round-Up brings you the latest newsworthy developments regarding Central Asia and the Caucasus region. We document the struggle for influence, power, hegemony and profits in Central Asia and the Caucasus region between a U. S.-dominated NATO, its GCC proxies, Russia, China and other regional players.
The “Euromaidan Revolution” was a resounding success. In fact, it was so successful that the “heroes of the Euromaidan Revolution” and their compatriots are now fleeing the country in record numbers. Fortunately, this won’t affect the regime in Kiev, which prefers to appoint foreigners to important positions. Ukraine is primarily relying on Georgian experience to “conquer the whole of Russia,” as former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili put it. But Saakashvili’s presence and the ever-increasing number of Saakashvili-era officials in Kiev have drawn heavy criticism from Georgia since the former President and several of his associates face criminal charges at home. Predictably, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ignored all warnings from Tbilisi and decided to appoint Saakashvili as his non-staff advisor and as head of Ukraine’s Advisory International Council of Reforms, where he can use his “knowledge, experience and unique know-how” to develop proposals and recommendations for implementing reforms in Ukraine.
Tbilisi’s reaction was not long in coming: Tbilisi Summons Ukrainian Ambassador over Saakashvili Georgian Foreign Ministry has ‘invited’ Ukrainian ambassador in Tbilisi, Vasyl Tsybenko, ‘to talk on many issues’ including about appointing Georgia’s ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is wanted by the Georgian authorities, as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s adviser, Georgian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Davit Kereselidze, said on February 16. He said that although this appointment was ‘surprising’ to Tbilisi, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson also stressed that ‘nothing will obstruct’ strategic partnership between Georgia and Ukraine. ‘Let’s not cause a stir out of it,’ Kereselidze said at a news conference responding a question about summoning of the Ukrainian ambassador. ‘Ukraine is our strategic partner, which is an important country with which we have and will have friendly relations.’

This post was published at Boiling Frogs Post on February 23, 2015.