A former deputy interior minister of Georgia, Ekaterina Zguladze, is expected to be appointed to a similar post in Ukraine next week.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook on December 12 that he had signed a recommendation addressed to President Petro Poroshenko to grant Ukrainian citizenship to Zguladze so that she can be appointed.
According to Avakov, Poroshenko has welcomed his recommendation and it is expected that Zguladze will become a Ukrainian citizen next week, after which Avakov will ask the Cabinet to appoint her as his first deputy.
Zguladze helped carry out sweeping law enforcement reforms that were praised by the West under former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Saakashvili and his allies have come under vocal criticism from the former opposition politicians who unseated them in a 2012 election and some face criminal investigations or charges.
Ukraine's new government, approved on December 2, includes Health Minister Aleksandr Kvitashvili, who was health minister in Georgia under Saakashvili; Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, a U.S. native who previously worked at the U.S. State Department; and Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius, a Lithuanian investment banker. All of them obtained Ukrainian citizenship before joining the Cabinet.
