Ukraine has the “potential to become a European superpower” but its corrupt, entrenched elite has made it “the poorest country in Europe,” ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said at the Kyiv Post’s annual Tiger Conference in Kyiv on Nov. 29.

Saakashvili, the keynote speaker at the 2016 conference, stepped down as governor of Odesa Oblast on Nov. 7, accusing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of blocking his reform efforts. He later announced plans to launch a political party, oust Ukraine’s entire political elite, and bring a new generation of reformers to power.