Irakli Garibashvili

Irakli Garibashvili (ირაკლი ღარიბაშვილი, also transliterated as Gharibashvili; born 28 June 1982 ) is a Georgian politician and a former business executive who served as the prime minister of Georgia between 22 February 2021 and 29 January 2024.

From 1988 to 1999 Garibashvili attended the secondary school No. 1 in Dedoplistsqaro.

From 1999 to 2005 Garibashvili studied International Relations at Tbilisi State University (TSU), where he graduated with a master's degree.

He also studied at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University from 2002 to 2004.

Since 2004, he has worked with the multi-billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.

He started by working for logistics division of the construction company Burji, owned by Ivanshvili's Cartu Group.

He became Director General of Ivanishvili's charity foundation Cartu in 2005, a member of the supervisory board of Ivanishvili's Cartu Bank in 2007, and director of the label Georgian Dream founded by Ivanishvili's pop-star son Bera from 2009 to 2012.

He entered politics with his long-time associate Bidzina Ivanishvili, in October 2012.

Garibashvili became involved in the politics of Georgia when Ivanishvili founded his political party Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia in February 2012.

Garibashvili was one of the founding members and initially headed the party's revision committee.

He was included in the party list of MP candidates for the October 2012 parliamentary election.

After the coalition won the 2012 parliamentary election on 1 October, Irakli Garibashvili became a party-list representative of the Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia party in the 2012 convocation of the Parliament of Georgia.

After Georgian Dream's victory in the 2012 parliamentary election, Garibashvili was appointed as Minister of Internal Affairs in the cabinet of prime minister Ivanishvili on 25 October 2012.

Garibashvili, then 30 years old, became the youngest member of Georgia's new government.

Reforming the Interior Ministry, an agency overseeing Georgian police, security and intelligence services, as well as the border guard and navy, was a part of the Georgian Dream's pre-election agenda.

Georgian Dream also promised to "restore justice" during the election campaign and to prosecute officials of the previous government for human rights abuses committed while in office, especially after the Gldani prison scandal prior to the elections confirmed long-standing allegations of ill-treatment in the Georgian penitentiary system.

Subsequently, from 2012 through 2013, the Interior Ministry arrested several high-ranking officials from the previous government, including the former ministers Bachana Akhalaia and Ivane Merabishvili.

During his tenure, Garibashvili announced that he would take steps to de-politicise the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

As part of the reform, the Constitutional Security and Special Operative Departments were abolished.

An ad hoc commission was set up to handle 24 000 illegal surveillance files found in the MIA.

He had previously served as prime minister from 20 November 2013 until his resignation on 30 December 2015.

Garibashvili is a member of the Georgian Dream party and has served as the party's chairman since 1 February 2024.

Ivanishvili named Garibashvili as his successor as prime minister when he voluntarily stepped down in November 2013.

Aged 31 at his ascension, he was the youngest person to assume the Prime Ministerial office.

During his first term, he was the second youngest state leader in the world, after Kim Jong-un.

Those files, which contained compromising footage, were destroyed in presence of media and members of a commission in August 2013.

Garibashvili's agency faced the post-election spike in crime in Georgia after the newly elected government granted large-scale prison amnesty to reduce Georgia's high incarceration rate.

Garibashvili opposed the amnesty project, but it was implemented by the parliament anyway.

Garibashvili defended the arrests of the former ministers as being in strict accordance with the law and justice and claimed that the rate of minor crime, albeit increased, was not alarming.

On 2 November 2013, prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who had declared his intention to quit the government following the October 2013 presidential election, named Garibashvili as his successor.

He and his cabinet won in a vote of 93–19 in the Parliament of Georgia on 20 November 2013.

Garibashvili thus occupied the most powerful political office in the country as the constitution amendments had transferred power from the president to the prime minister and the government.

At heated parliamentary debates with the United National Movement minority during the vote, Garibashvili promised economic improvement and stressed that Georgia's EU and NATO aspiration would remain his foreign priorities.

On 24 November 2013, he was elected chairman of the Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia party, succeeding Ivanishvili.

Garibashvili announced his resignation on 23 December 2015.

While no reason was given for the sudden move, it was reported that he may have done so due to low levels of support for the Georgian Dream among the populace, with it polling at 18% in November, and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2016.

Opposition politicians, analysts and media speculated that falling support for the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, pressure from the previous prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, or tensions with the president Giorgi Margvelashvili were possible explanations for Garibashvili's resignation.

Garibashvili was succeeded as prime minister by Giorgi Kvirikashvili, who had been his Minister of Foreign Affairs, with the transfer of power taking effect on 29 December.

During his tenure the Security and Crisis Management Council was established, as stipulated by the new Constitution of Georgia.

He served as Defence Minister of Georgia in the cabinet of prime minister Giorgi Gakharia from 2019 to 2021 and, prior to that, as Minister of Internal Affairs in the cabinet of Bidzina Ivanishvili from 2012 to 2013.