Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia

Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia

Mikheil Saakashvili was elected President of Georgia in January 2004, following Georgia’s Rose Revolution. He had previously served as Chairman of the Sakrebulo (City Council) of Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, from 2002 to 2004. President Saakashvili first entered politics in 1995 when he was elected to Parliament, where he became Chairman of the Committee of Legal Issues, Rule of Law and Administrative Reforms.

In 1997, the Georgian mass media and NGOs recognized President Saakashvili as “Man of the Year.” In January 2000, he was elected Vice President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, and that same year was head of the Georgian delegation to that body. In October, 2000, he was appointed Minister of Justice of Georgia, but in 2001 he resigned from the post in protest. In 2001, he formed and became leader of Georgia’s biggest opposition political party, “United National Movement.”

President Saakashvili studied in Ukraine and the United States, and at different times worked at the Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, the Human Rights Protection State Committee of Georgia, and a large law firm in New York.