Zurab Zhvania

Zurab Zhvania (Georgian ზურაბ ჟვანია, Zurab Žvania; born December 9, 1963 in Tbilisi, † February 3, 2005 ) was a Georgian politician (United National Movement ). The biologist was from November 2003 to February 2004 Office of the Minister of State and of 17 February 2004 until his death, Prime Minister of Georgia.

Life

Youth and professional

Zhvania was born the son of a Georgian father and a Jewish- Armenian mother. He graduated in 1980 from high school with the Abitur, 1985, the State University of Tbilisi as a Master in Biology. 1985-1992 he worked as a senior laboratory assistant at the faculty of human and animal physiology State University as well as downstream research employee.

Zurab Zhvania was married since 1993 with Nino Kadagidse that a bookshop for English-language books into Tbilisi, had a son and two daughters: Elisabeth, Anna and Bessarion. He spoke English, German and Russian.

Party politicians

1988 to 1993 was Chairman of the Central Council of Zhvania Georgian Green, spokesman for the Green Party and chairman of the European Greens Union. In 1993 he united his party and the followers of President Eduard Shevardnadze to Georgian citizens Union, was its general secretary from 1994 to 1996. After his separation from Shevardnadze in 2001 Zhvania in 2002 founded the United Democratic Party and became its chairman. At the 2003 parliamentary elections, he joined in an electoral alliance with Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze as Burjanadze - Democrats.

From June to November 1992 was Zhvania Chairman of the Ecology Commission of the Georgian State Council, 1992-1995 Member of the Georgian Parliament, President of the Green Group and Vice Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. From 1995 to 1999 he was again deputy. The parliament elected him president.

Opposition

2000, Zhvania distanced pioneered by Shevardnadze, accusing him of corruption. In August 2001, he called on the President in an open letter to put an end to corruption: "Teachers earn 15 Euros a month, while Minister erect palaces in the center of Tbilisi. This exceeds all limits of cynicism. " In November 2001, Zhvania resigned after demonstrations against President Shevardnadze from office of President of Parliament.

In spring 2003, he met together on the mediation of the Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, with the former Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky in London. It was the first in a series in which Zhvania successfully soliciting funds for the support of democratic institutions in Ukraine and the campaign of the Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko.

Together with Mikheil Saakashvili and Nino Burjanadze led Zhvania in November 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia. Immediately after the exchange on November 23, Zhvania assumed the duties of the incumbent Minister of State, initiated a first reforms and organized Saakashvili's presidential campaign. He was a leading member of the party National Movement - Democrats, which together include the support of the Velvet Revolution.

Prime minister

Zhvania was appointed in February 2004 to the President's proposal from Parliament to the Prime Minister and stood in front of a 15-member cabinet reform, whose average age was 35 years. In the Government of Georgia Zhvania was considered a moderate counterweight to President Saakashvili ungestümeren he had for " exaggerated radicalism " blamed 2002. He was also a key figure in the negotiations on the separatist republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Public controversy was Zhvania's role in privatization in Georgia. He pulled all the last decisions to itself. The formal competent Minister of Economy, he moved in 24 months of three times. As an unconstitutional local business experts criticized his role in the sale of the port of Batumi and 16 ships of the Georgian Black Sea Fleet.

Early death

In the early morning of February 3, 2005 he was found with the ministerial Long Presented Raul Yusupov dead in an apartment in Tbilisi Saburtalo the road 53A. He died of gas poisoning by carbon monoxide. The police, prosecutors and the FBI added solid spoke of an accident that was caused by a faulty gas furnace.

The brother of Zhvania, Giorgi, on the other hand stated that it was an assassination attempt. In the investigation files he had five data found that contradict the official version of death. According to research of the television journalist Vakhtang Komachidse the FBI had found no release of deadly gas concentrations by the heater in question. However, the Georgian translation of the English examination report claiming the opposite.

The prosecutor's investigation into the death of Zhvania was two years after the death of the Prime Minister is still not completed. In September 2007, said the interior and defense ministers in the Cabinet Zhvania, Irakli Okruashvili, at a press conference, where the corpse of Zhvania was not the same as the place of his death. The body was taken to the apartment after the death of the prime minister.

Awards

2002 Zhvania was awarded the Georgian Open Society for the promotion of liberal ideas of an open society. In 2004 he was honored as the organizer of the Rose Revolution, the W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award of the U.S. National Democratic Institute (NDI ).