Salome Zurabishvili is 66 years old. She was born in Paris in 1952 into a family of Georgian political emigrants. Her paternal grandfather, Ivan Ivanovich Zurabishvili, was a member of the Menshevik government of independent Georgia in 1918 and 1921. Before the arrival of the Bolsheviks in the same 1921, he and his family left the country and eventually settled in France.

Later, his son Levan married a Georgian emigrant Zeinab Kedia, and in 1952 they had a daughter, who was named Salome. In 1972 she graduated from the Paris Institute of Political Sciences, and in 1973 from Columbia University in the USA. Then she served in the French Foreign Ministry. She specialized in the study of Russia.

Since the end of 2003 - Ambassador of France to Georgia. After working in this post for only 3 months, Salome Zurabishvili accepted the offer of the new President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, to head the Foreign Ministry of this country. Zurabishvili considered one of her main successes as Foreign Minister to be the decision to withdraw Russian military bases from the country. In one of her speeches, she even said that she considered this a historical achievement. The minister also stated that Georgia does not intend to host foreign military bases in the future, but will not fix this point in the agreement with Russia, since this will limit its sovereignty.

However, the career of the Georgian diplomat did not last long. A year and a half later, in October 2005, Salome Zurabishvili was released from this post after she publicly criticized her president. Then the politician was in opposition and took part in rallies demanding Saakashvili’s resignation. In 2016, she was elected as a member of the Georgian Parliament.

In August of this year, Zurabishvili announced her desire to run for president. And not from any party, but as an independent candidate. Nevertheless, in early September, the ruling Georgian Dream party, that is, which has a majority in the local parliament, announced that it would not nominate its own candidate, but would support Zurabishvili. After her election victory in the second round, she promised journalists that she would be the president of all Georgian citizens, regardless of who they voted for in the elections. Her most important task as president will be to unite society and establish stability in the country. Local experts, in turn, hope that, despite her Western European origins, Salome Zurabishvili will take a softer line towards Russia.

Broadcasts on the topic: Russia-Georgia

“One Georgian insults, but everyone is ashamed”

GIA SARALIDZE: “Ashamed of the Georgian journalist? Everyone is ashamed! Because now Georgians will be associated with this subhuman. He did not insult the Russian president, but first of all he insulted the Georgian people. Because now we are all ashamed! There’s not even anything to justify, all that’s left is to look down and say: “Sorry!”

“Putin reset the situation with Georgia”

SERGEY MIKHEEV: “In Georgia they tried to bring their “plot” to the end. The TV presenter's speech fit into the continuation of the development of the conflict. They realized that somehow the gurgling was dying down - they needed to “throw it up”. This was planned by someone in advance. There was legitimate indignation, but Putin reset the situation, showing that the provocation did not work.”

Sanctions against rudeness: Russia intends to impose restrictions on Georgia

At a meeting on Tuesday, the State Duma unanimously adopted a statement in which it condemned anti-Russian provocations in Georgia and proposed responding to them with a number of economic measures. The Lower House asks the Cabinet to submit relevant proposals to the President.

Georgia may lose the Russian market for wine and mineral water

On Tuesday, the State Duma may consider stopping the supply of Georgian wine and mineral water to Russia, as well as banning money transfers to Georgia. This was announced by the leader of the Duma faction “United Russia” Sergei Neverov.

Georgia has made another political breakthrough by electing a new president. On November 28, 2018, a woman became the head of state, which is surprising for such a patriarchal country. The biography of Salome Zurabishvili, a Georgian woman who was born and raised in France, but all her life dreamed of returning to the homeland of her ancestors, is also unusual. Georgians consider Salome Zurabishvili a true patriot of their country and hope that she will faithfully serve the people who elected her.

Salome Zurabishvili was born in 1952 in Paris into a family of Georgian emigrants who fled Soviet rule in 1921. Salome's father was an engineer, his mother ran a household and raised children. Zurabishvili's outstanding ancestors were highly educated intellectuals: his grandfather was a member of the government of independent Georgia, and his great-grandfather founded a seaport and initiated the construction of the first railway in Georgia.

The father of the future president was the founder of the Georgian diaspora in France. The family carefully preserved national traditions. Salome studied her native language and literature, as well as the history of Georgia. She actively absorbed patriotic sentiments, helped Georgian dissidents expelled from the USSR, published a newspaper in France in her native language, and even participated in demonstrations against the policies of the Soviet Union.

Career and family of Salome Zurabishvili

Salome Zurabishvili also received her education abroad. She holds graduate degrees from the Paris Polytechnic Institute and Columbia University in the USA. After completing her studies, Salome began to actively build a diplomatic career. Over almost 30 years of experience, she managed to work as part of the French diplomatic missions to NATO and the UN, as well as as a secretary at the embassy in Italy, the USA and Chad.

In 2004, Zurabishvili first appeared on the political arena of Georgia. After the Rose Revolution, at the request of Mikheil Saakashvili, she became the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and received Georgian citizenship. However, a year later, due to a conflict with the head of parliament and accusations against the new authorities of trying to establish a clan dictatorship in the country, she left her post.

After her resignation, Zurabishvili created her own opposition party, “The Way of Georgia.” However, having failed to realize her ideas and becoming disillusioned with Georgian politics, she left for France, where she worked at the UN office to deal with the problem of the conflict in Iran. In 2012, Salome returned to Georgia, and already in 2013 she tried to run for president for the first time. However, she was denied registration due to her dual citizenship.

For several years, Salome was a member of the Georgian parliament and was part of the opposition coalition. In the summer of 2018, she renounced her French citizenship in order to participate in the presidential elections, in which she won a landslide victory.

Salome Zurabishvili was married twice. In her first marriage, she gave birth to two children - a daughter, Ketevan, and a son, Teimuraz. Her second husband was Soviet dissident and Radio Liberty journalist Zhanri Kashiya, who died in 2012.

Political views of Salome Zurabishvili

Zurabishvili's attitude towards Russia is ambiguous. She is not considered a supporter of Russian politics. Salome intends to realize her family’s dream and strengthen Georgia’s independence, as well as support its movement towards Europe. The politician has repeatedly stated that Russia repeatedly occupied Georgia, which is why her ancestors were forced to leave their homeland. She condemns the Russian operation to force Georgia to peace in 2008 as a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of her country.

However, Zurabishvili believes that it would be useful for Georgia to normalize relations with Russia. Moreover, many local business structures continue to do business with the Russian Federation, despite the negativity in the official policies of the states.

The new president of Georgia is Salome Zurabishvili. Who is she?

Georgia has found its fifth president. A figure that is in many ways unusual for the Transcaucasian republic. For the first time in the history of independent Georgia, a woman became the head of state, moreover, a Parisian by birth and, until recently, a French woman by passport - Salome Zurabishvili.

PHOTO by Mikhail DZHAPARIDZE/TASS

The current presidential elections had two more features. Firstly, they took place in a difficult struggle and in two rounds, which has not happened before in the political history of the country. And secondly, Zurabishvili will remain the last president elected by popular vote. Six years after the end of her term, according to changes in the constitution, the head of state will be appointed by a special electoral college of 300 people.

It should be noted that after the 2010 reform, Georgia is a parliamentary republic, where all power is concentrated in the parliament and government. According to the updated version of the constitution, the president of the country retains the title of head of state, but his actual powers without executive functions are severely limited. He represents the country at the international level, is the commander-in-chief, and performs various representative functions.

Despite this, the current elections turned out to be important and revealing in their own way, because they had to answer two interrelated questions. What is the real popularity of the country's ruling Georgian Dream party, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, and whether ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili will be able to return to local politics in the near future. The fact is that, although 25 candidates ran for the presidency, only two had real chances. Salome Zurabishvili, who ran as an independent candidate, but enjoyed the full support of the current authorities and the so-called administrative resource. And Grigol Vashadze, representative of Saakashvili’s United National Movement party.

The first round, in which Zurabishvili beat her opponent by less than one percent, raised hopes among Saakashvili's supporters. But at the same time, as the second round showed, it mobilized opponents of the ex-president. As a result, with a turnout that was almost 10% higher than in the first round (56% versus 46%), Salome Zurabishvili overtook Grigol Vashadze by almost 20%.

The new president of Georgia was born in 1952 in the capital of France into a family of Georgian political emigrants.

Two of her grandfathers were subjects of the Russian Empire. Moreover, one was a practitioner and initiator of the construction of the seaport in Poti and the Georgian railway. And the second grandfather was a politician: he was part of the government of the Georgian Mensheviks, who seized power in the country after 1917. But in 1921 the government changed, and both grandfathers and their families emigrated to France. Salome's parents graduated from French universities, her father got a job at an automobile plant, where he worked as an engineer, and her mother was a housewife. The family always tried not to forget their national roots, they spoke their native language, hence Salome’s knowledge of Georgian. Also, the parents were staunch opponents of Soviet power. Young Salome took part in demonstrations in Paris against the visits of Soviet leaders.

Salome was always an excellent student, both at school and then, studying first at the Paris Institute of Political Sciences, and then overseas at Columbia University in the USA. From her youth she dreamed of a diplomatic career, and at an interview at the French Foreign Ministry she directly stated that she would like to become the ambassador of this country to Georgia. Surprisingly, sometimes even such dreams come true. After a nearly thirty-year career in the French foreign policy department, where Zurabishvili served in various positions and in various countries (from Chad to Italy), at the age of 51 she became the ambassador of the Fifth Republic in the homeland of her ancestors.

Zurabishvili was present during the Orange Revolution when Saakashvili came to power. Moreover, on his initiative, the French ambassador became the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia in 2004. However, his career at the “Georgian court” did not work out. After working for just over a year and a half in Saakashvili’s government, she resigned in 2005.

Some time later, Madame Zurabishvili tried to revive her career in Georgia by creating her own social movement. The attempt was unsuccessful. Zurabishvili left inhospitable Georgia and worked for some time at the UN. However, as soon as a politician capable of “overthrowing” the Saakashvili regime appeared on the political horizon, she returned to the homeland of her ancestors. First, in 2016, with the support of Bidzina Ivanishvili, Zurabishvili received a mandate as a member of parliament, but now, after the presidential elections, she managed to move to the chair of the head of state.

The new president of Georgia has never been a supporter of establishing relations with Russia. Which, however, is not surprising, given her biography, family roots and traditions. “Our goal is NATO and the EU. There is no alternative. Russia does not offer any prospects. I don’t see how it is possible to resume dialogue with Moscow in some form,” Zurabishvili said during the pre-election period.

However, one should not overestimate the influence of Madame Zurabishvili on Russian-Georgian relations. In fact, they are determined by the government and Bidzina Ivanishvili personally. The normalization of relations, primarily in the trade and economic sphere, between Moscow and Tbilisi has already occurred in the period 2012 - 2016. Today, Russia is Georgia’s second largest trade partner (after Turkey). And in order to restore diplomatic relations, it is necessary to move forward in resolving the issue of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In the current situation, based on the opposing approaches to the problem on the part of Russia and Georgia, this is simply impossible for now.

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The newly elected President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, said that she does not intend to cooperate with Moscow in the near future because of its “behavior.” She gave her first interview after winning the elections to the BBC Russian Service ( BBCNews), during which the politician emphasized that her main goal in office would be Georgia’s accession to the EU and NATO.

“These six years will be very important for Georgia, which is moving towards integration into Europe, into the European Union, into NATO. During this time we must get as close to this as possible or integrate completely. And I will be the most active president on this issue. I will remember that it was Mrs. Vike-Freiberga (President of Latvia from 1999 to 2007) who brought her country into the EU and NATO. This is my goal too,” she said and also added that she wants to “make Georgia more visible on the world map in many aspects, mainly in the cultural plane.” Zurabishvili noted that she grew up in Europe and was a French diplomat for more than 30 years. “I know what European society is, how we can move closer to it, how we can unite the people,” she concluded.

Speaking about relations with Moscow, Zurabishvili said that “after the Russian-Georgian war of 2008, the fact that Russia considers two occupied territories to be de facto independent blocks any possibility of dialogue with Russia.”

“For something like this in the future, we need exactly the same configuration that we had when I was foreign minister, which is to have support and work very, very closely with our European and American partners. In the current configuration, and taking into account Russia’s aggressive attitude, it is impossible to remain alone. Therefore, we need to be closer to our partners and have them next to us and behind us,” she said.

The journalist noted that it is impossible to resolve the conflict without negotiations with Russia. To this Zurabishvili responded as follows: “We must conduct dialogue in the future, but we should not do it alone, it must be part of a common dialogue. If this happens, it must be led and supported by our partners. During the negotiations that I conducted with Russia, before and after each negotiation session, I consulted with the leadership of the European Union and the American embassy. And the other side of the negotiations knew about this and accepted it. And this is Georgia's clear position: we cannot be fooled, and I will not be the president who plays the fool. We need to build our position and coordinate it with European partners, and if they begin to move towards dialogue with Russia, we must make sure that Georgia is not left aside, that the principles of Georgia - sovereignty, territorial integrity - are part of the negotiations, and they are reliably protected "

Answering a question about how she plans to maintain a balance in relations with Europe and Russia, given that Russia is Georgia’s neighbor, Zurabishvili said: “This is not a balance. I know that they mistakenly said about me that I want to balance... this is also “fake news”, because I never spoke about interaction with Russia. I don’t think that for now Russia behaves like this on the line of occupation, where people are kidnapped every day, and while this line, this constant threat, is moving deeper into our territory, closer and closer to Tbilisi, and also taking into account how Russia is now behaving Regarding Ukraine, I don’t think that today we can move on to cooperation. I don't think there is a balance here. We are the West, we are Europe, we are pro-European. If the West, Europe or our American partners begin some form of dialogue with Russia, we will also be there, we will monitor it so that our principles, our sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected.”

Salome Zurabishvili was born in France into a family of Georgian political emigrants and worked for many years as a diplomat in the French Foreign Ministry. She came to Georgia in 2003 as Ambassador of France, but already in 2004 she became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Mikheil Saakashvili. Then she received Georgian citizenship.

In 2008, Georgia broke off diplomatic relations with Russia in response to Moscow's recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.