Saakashvili, Mikhail (1967- )

Georgian right-wing politician, president from 2004. In November 2003 he led a bloodless revolution which, through popular demonstrations in the wake of rigged parliamentary elections, overthrew President Edvard Shevardnadze, a survivor from the Soviet era. A charismatic, populist-nationalist who trained in law in the USA, he made his reputation campaigning against the deep-rooted corruption in the Georgian state.

Born into a Tbilisi professional family, Saakashvili studied law at Kiev University in the Ukraine and then at Columbia University and George Washington University in the USA. In 1995, at the invitation of Zurab Zhvania, president of the Georgian parliament, he returned to Georgia to become a candidate for the liberal Union of Georgian Citizens party, and was elected to parliament. Briefly a justice minister in 2000, he emerged as a strong critic of corruption. He set up the National Movement, which vowed to close Russian military bases in Georgia. He is seen to have support from the USA, which has interests in a $3 billion oil pipeline from Azerbaijan to the Turkish coast, via Georgia.

Saakashvili was elected president in a massive landslide in January 2004, with 86% of the vote. As president he faced a daunting task, leading a country in which the black economy accounted for 60% of total activity, and whose outlying areas such as Adzharia were seeking to break away.