Dissident Russian expert to advise Saakashvili
The Kommersant Daily speculates that Andrei Illarionov, ex senior advisor and an outspoken critic of Putin's economic policies (which include arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky), might become the next economics advisor for the president of Georgia.
Illarionov, who recently has been hired by Cato Institute, a US libertarian economics think-tank, visited Tbilisi a few days ago to participate in "Freedom, Commerce & Peace: A Regional Agenda" international conference and, according to Kommersant, was invited for a dinner with president Saakashvili.
Not Illarionov, nor Kakha Bendukidze, his host and State Minister on Reforms Coordination of Georgia, would comment on speculations. However the position of Saakashvili's advisor is about to become vacant as it's current holder Mart Laar, a prominent Estonian politician, is likely to quit the job in Georgia to concentrate on PM elections in Estonia.
In his interview early this year Laar compared current situation in Georgia to the one in Estonia in 1993-1995 when faced with an aggressive campaign from Moscow to prevent it from embracing the West, the Estonian government undertook bold economic reforms that raised living standards for the whole society - which took much of the steam out of the grievances Russian speakers initially had.
"Where there's a problem perhaps, is that in a sense Georgia is in an even worse situation than Estonia in 1993-1994. In other words, the lost 15 years have caused a singularly difficult set of circumstances to emerge -- which was not the case in such an extreme form in Estonia. The extent to which Georgia's economic infrastructure has collapsed is an entire order of magnitude worse than what Estonia was faced with in its time.
"Another factor is that Russia has become significantly stronger. Russia's capacity to pursue its intentions is incomparably greater now than with regard to Estonia in 1993-1995.
"These two factors, when combined, create a very difficult situation. Looking at predictions made by various international analysts about developments in Georgia over the coming years, what stands out is that they are extremely contradictory. The optimists say Georgia will do very well while the pessimists say Georgia will do very badly. One of the two camps has got it right, I think there'll be no halfway house. A lot of course will depend on Georgia itself."
Illarionov agrees that Russian sanctions will do nothing more than making the Georgian economy stronger.
"Estonia has had a similar [to Georgia] experience when Russia imposed trade sanctions against her. This allowed Estonia to reorientate to the West. Now Georgia will gain the same experience which will allow her to become another economic tiger. Or a leopard. Georgia can actually thank Russian authorities for such a specific assistance."