Zurab Zhvania by Levan Urushadze
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Zurab B. Zhvania (born on December 9, 1963, in Tbilisi), Georgian politician, Prime Minister of the Republic of Georgia.
In 1985 he graduated from the Faculty of Biology of the Tbilisi State University (TSU).
Zurab Zhvania entered national politics in 1988. In 1988-1990, his Green Party was one of a number of opposition groups that took part in Georgia's drive to regain its independence. In September 1991 his party joined the opposition to the government of the first President of the Republic of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Violent coup d'etat of December-January, 1991-1992 resulted in Eduard Shevardnadze, the former 1st Secretary of the Communist Party of the former Georgian SSR and the former Soviet foreign minister, coming to power a few months later.
Shevardnadze established the Union of Citizens of Georgia. Zhvania joined this organization and recruited other young Georgian politicians to the party, notably Mikheil Saakashvili. In 1995 he was elected Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia. However, Zhvania fell out with Shevardnadze over a corruption scandal and resigned as speaker of the Parliament on November 1, 2001. He and Saakashvili also left Shevardnadze's party. He established a new party, called the United Democrats (on February 24, 2004 the United National Movement of Mikheil Saakashvili and the United Democrats had amalgamated. New political organization was named the National Movement-Democrats).
The parliamentary elections of November 2, 2003 were widely condemned by local and international observers as being grossly rigged by the government. In response, Zhvania and other opposition figures called for mass protests against Shevardnadze. Two weeks of massive popular protests followed, forcing Shevardnadze's resignation on November 23. He was replaced on an interim basis by Zhvania's successor as parliamentary speaker, Nino Burjanadze.
On January 4, 2004 Mikheil Saakashvili won the Presidential Elections in Georgia. On February 18, 2004 Zurab Zhvania was appointed as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Georgia.
