The main characters in this political brawl are current Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Mikheil Saakashvili — the governor of the Odessa Region and the former President of Georgia — President Petro Poroshenko and Ukraine's chief oligarchs as the henchmen of the two opponents.
The conflict between Yatsenyuk and Saakashvili has already created speculation over who would become the next prime minister in 2016. The ground under Yatsenyuk is already shaking and this winter he could end up losing his office, said Svitlana Kononchuk, head of political programs at the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research.
"Right now a media smear campaign is being centered around Yatsenyuk in order to remove him from office this winter. And Saakashvili plays an important role in it, but he [Saakashvili] is acting independently and sincerely, as after all there are things for which Yatsenyuk should be criticized," Kononchuk said, as cited by RT.
Ukrainians are fed up with corruption that is so intimately tied up with Ukrainian politics that they seem to prefer people, like Saakashvili, over other Ukrainian politicians who all have their own business interests at stake when it comes to politics. Thus, anyone who opposes [ed. or pretends to oppose oligarchs] will receive the support of the population, Kononchuk explained.
At the end of the day, both Yatsenyuk and Saakashvili equally satisfy their superiors in Washington. That's why their bosses in Washington can simply sit back and enjoy, while their puppets go at each other's throats.