Nino Burjanadze, Georgian jurist and politician, is currently serving as Speaker of the Georgian Parliament. Born in July 1964, she is coming from Kutaisi.

Nino Burjanadze graduates from the Faculty of Law of the Tbilisi State University in 1986. She gets a PhD in International Law from the Moscow State University in 1990, before to teach at the Faculty of International Law Department of the Tbilissi State University.

Regarded as being pro-Western, she declares herself in favour of Georgia’s membership to the European Union and NATO.

Member of the Georgian Parliament since 1995, she becomes in 2000 the vice-president of the Parliementary Commission of OSCE. In 2001-2002, she presides the Parliamentary Commission for the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. At the beginning of her political career, Nino Burjanadze was a member of Eduard Shevardnadze's party, Citizen’s Union of Georgia (CUG) - her father, a rich businessmen, had been financing this party for years.

President of the Parliamentary Commission for the Foreign Affairs from 1999, she is then supporting Shevardnadze for his foreign policy. Nevertheless, she does not hesitate to openly denounce the corruption and inefficiency of the domestic policy implemented by the government, since she judges it to be ineffective.

In 2002 given the differences of opinion that oppose her to Shevardnadze, she leaves the UCG party. She forms an opposition party Burjanadze-Democrats. This party takes part in the Parliamentary elections of 2003.

Following the Parliamentary elections on November 2nd, 2003, and its protested results, she joins the others opposition leaders in denouncing electoral frauds and the invalidity of the poll. They encourage mass demonstrations against Shevardnadze.

On November 23rd, 2003 Shevardnadze resigns. In accordance with the Georgian constitution, Nino Burjanadze becomes the acting president of Georgia. One of the first actions she takes, is to call for national unity.

She becomes one of the three most popular political figures of the country, according to opinion polls realized in 2003. Her mandate as acting president ends up with the victory of Mikhael Saakashvili to the presidential elections on January 4th, 2004. On April 22nd, 2004, she gets back to her position of Speaker of the Parliament that was elected at the end of March 2004.


Digest

Mikhael Saakashvili denounces this situation. His party has conducted an agressive election campaign, packed with incidents. Before the polls, he was declaring himself to be close to the more moderate democratic bloc of Nino Burjanadze, president of the outgoing Parliament, and of Zurab Zhvania. He thus aims to form a powerful opposition bloc. Howecer Saakashvili does not conceal that his presidential ambitions might turn him into Nino Burjanadze’s opponent, when the time comes.
She was born among a family of the former nomenklatura, and her father Anzor, is one of the most controversial businessmen and a friend of Shevardnadze. She declares herself as being pro-Western. Coming back from a trip in Russia, she was accused of collaborating with the Russian security forces! She leaves the governmental bloc, and the affair comes to a sudden end for lack of evidence.
As for Saakashvili, he prides himself to not have any relative member of the Communist Party, and to not have any ancestor who was either shot or sent to to the gulag by Stalin. Besides, he frequently denounces the increased control by Gazprom and UES (Unified Energy System) –the Russian monopolies for gas and electricity- over the Georgian energy market . He demands the evacuation of the Russian bases - thème des plus populaires: «Moscow wants to prevent at all costs the construction of the gas pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum.
To this end, there is nothing such as those bases and the agents of GRU - the Russian Military Intelligence – that it shelters so as to manipulate the populations.»

L’Express, 11/06/2003. Article by Sylvaine Pasquier, « The twilight of a reign »


One year after the Rose Revolution most Georgians are still hopeful about the country’s future, but the number of critics of the current leadership is also growing.
According to a public opinion survey, conducted by the Tbilisi-based polling firm Georgian Opinion Research Business International (GORBI) throughout all of Georgia except breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia, 53% of citizens of Georgian believe that the country “is developing in the right direction.”
However, the number of those who think that the country “is heading in the wrong direction” has also increased, from 5% in February, 2004 to 30% in November, 2004.
[ ...] Despite a drop in popularity, Mikheil Saakashvili, who was elected President with 96% of the votes cast in the January snap elections, still remains the most popular politician in Georgia, with 58% support, according to the GORBI survey. Saakashvili is also the most trusted politician, followed by Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze.

Civil Georgia, 11/22/2004. Article by Tea Gularidze, « High Expectations Mixed with Disappointment Dominates One Year After”


Georgian parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze has reaffirmed Georgia's plans to join the European Union and NATO. "We have never made a secret of our plans to become a member of the European Union and NATO, since these organizations share the same values we do," Burjanadze told students of the Moscow International Relations Institute on Tuesday.
She said Georgia's membership in NATO and the EU would ensure its stability, unity and prosperity. "This meets the interests of Georgia, and Russia, as well, since Russia is interested in a stable Georgia," she said.

Interfax, 2/11/2004. Breaking news « Georgia reaffirms plans to join EU, NATO”


“[...]Her father heads the former Soviet republic's bread and flour monopoly and financed Mr Shevardnadze's last presidential campaign.
But her gradual disillusionment with the former president culminated on Saturday when she took over his role for an interim period before new parliamentary elections are held. [...]”

BBC, 24/11/2003. Article « Georgia's new leader replaces mentor »