Biography. Biography Education and the beginning of professional activity

The most famous Georgian woman politician Nino Burjanadze began her career in the 90s and dedicated her life public service at the highest level: she held key positions in the foreign policy sphere, was speaker of parliament for 7 years, twice stood at the helm of her native country in difficult times for all the people. Today Burjanadze heads opposition party "Democratic Movement - United Georgia".

Childhood and youth

Nino Anzorovna Burjanadze was born on July 16, 1964 in Kutaisi, Georgia. Mother - a teacher at the university, father - a party worker, headed the Kutaisi city committee of the Komsomol, the Terjol district committee of the CPSU, was the deputy minister of transport of the republic, and also headed the republican Council for tourism and excursions.

Statesman Nino Burjanadze

The girl grew up in an intelligent, privileged family. There was always an example of successful parents before my eyes. It is known that Anzor Burjanadze had a friendship with E. A. Shevardnadze himself, with whom he became close during the years of his work in the Kutaisi city committee of the Komsomol. Since early childhood, having high life orientations, Nino graduated with honors from the secondary Kutaisi school №2.

As a schoolgirl, having watched the film "The Ambassador of the Soviet Union" about the heroic woman who became the first woman ambassador and minister, she became interested in diplomacy. She began to study the history of interstate relations, politics, biography of the leaders of states.

After school, the girl was preparing to enter MGIMO at the Faculty of International Law, but her strict father did not let her go to Moscow. As a result, in 1981, Burjanadze became a student of the law faculty of Tbilisi state university... However, dreams of Moscow and a career in international affairs soon turned out to be a reality.

In 1986, Nino, already a married lady, left for the capital to study in graduate school at the Department of International Law of the Law Faculty of Moscow State University. Having successfully defended his thesis, "Kollontai from Sakartvelo", as Burjanadze is now called, returns to his homeland as a candidate of legal sciences.

Career and politics

Nino moved to Tbilisi and in 1991 got a job at his native university at the Department of International Law. In parallel with teaching, the woman works as an expert consultant: in 1991-1992 - in the Ministry of Ecology of Georgia, and in 1992-1995 - in the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Parliament. In 1994, Burjanadze accepted the position of a researcher at the diplomatic laboratory. For a decade of fruitful work, Nino Anzorovna writes about 20 scientific papers, including on issues of international law.

The political biography of Nino Burjanadze starts in the mid-90s. The talented international lawyer was noticed by the head of the government Zurab Zhvania and invited the young woman to run for parliament from the Union of Citizens party, which supported presidential candidate Eduard Shevardnadze. For a Caucasian woman, even one as emancipated as Burjanadze, it was not easy to make such a choice: it meant spending a minimum of time on her family. But Nino's husband, who knows how important a politician is for his wife, supported her.

“My husband said that I can do something more for my country,” she later admitted in an interview.

After becoming a member of parliament in 1995, Burjanadze received the post of first deputy chairman of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal Issues and Legality (she headed it in 1998), and she was involved in cooperation between the Georgian parliament and the British parliament.

After 3 years, Nino Anzorovna fulfills her childhood dream by starting to work in the arena of international politics. Between 1998-2000 she is Rapporteur of the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Parliamentary Assembly OSCE. And then she became vice president of this international organization.

Also during this period, a woman politician oversees parliamentary cooperation between the European Union and Georgia as a co-chair of the committee, heads the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Parliament of Georgia and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea economic cooperation.

By 2001, Burjanadze is gaining enough political points for the first big position in politics and, having won the election of the head of parliament, replaces Zurab Zhvania, who resigned due to disagreement with the presidential policy of Eduard Shevardnadze.

At the same time, he "broke away" from the pro-presidential team, creating the opposition party "National Movement". And in July 2002 Burjanadze and ex-speaker Zurab Zhvania also organized the Burjanadze-Democrats opposition party.

All opposition members are participating in the 2003 parliamentary elections, following which Shevardnadze's party officially won. This provoked a powerful protest: the opposition demanded to recognize the elections as illegitimate, and from the president - early resignation.

In the outbreak of the Rose Revolution, Burjanadze supported the candidacy of Mikhail Saakashvili. And after Shevardnadze's resignation on November 23, 2003, Nino Burjanadze, as speaker of parliament, became and. about. President of Georgia and remained in this post until the new presidential elections were held on January 4, 2004, which ended in victory for Saakashvili.

With the coming to power of the new leader, Nino Anzorovna retains the post of speaker of the country. Therefore, in 2007, when, after massive opposition protests, Saakashvili made a voluntary decision to resign, Burjanadze again became and. about. head of state. The next elections approved Saakashvili as president of Georgia.

“Both times I managed to do the most important thing - to maintain stability, to bring the country to the presidential elections and to hold elections in a calm atmosphere, not to lead to civil confrontation,” she later said about two important moments of her political career.

After Saakashvili's victory, the speaker resigned and announced her retirement from big politics in 2008. However, this decision was short-lived. In the same year, Burjanadze returned with the slogans of the new party "Democratic Movement - United Georgia", from which she ran for president in 2013.

Nino Burjanadze in the Pozner program

In her election program, she stakes on creating a balance in the country's internal political life, improving Georgia's foreign policy vectors, in particular Georgian-Russian relations. As a result, the candidate takes 3rd place in the election race, gaining only 10.18% of the vote and losing to Giorgi Margvelashvili.

In 2017 she was a guest of the Pozner program, where in candid interview answered the questions of the TV presenter.

Personal life

Back in her student years, Nino met a young lawyer, Badri Bitsadze. Soon, the personal life of an exemplary student smoothly flowed into the family. The young people got married, and in 1991 in Moscow, where Nino went to study in graduate school, the first-born son Anzor was born. In 1999, a second son, Rezo, appeared in the Burjanadze-Bitsadze family.

By this time, the spouse of the future speaker had made a career in the prosecutor's office: in 1997-2001 he was the chief military prosecutor of Georgia, and from 2002 to 2003 - the deputy prosecutor general.

As the politician admitted, in her youth, at the beginning of raising children, her mother helped her a lot, who took all the worries about the house, household, life into her own hands. At the same time, Nino Anzorovna is very home person: loves to cook, grow indoor flowers, loves pets, especially dogs. In his rare free time, he prefers theater, reading, classical music.

In clothing and style, she is rather conservative - she prefers strict classics, does not allow herself excesses in styles and shades, and the politician's photo confirms this.

Nino Burjanadze now

In November 2018, Burjanadze sharply criticized the past presidential elections, which she won, calling them "an absolute farce."

At the same time, the head of the Democratic Movement - United Georgia party said:

"I will definitely take part in the parliamentary elections, and now active negotiations are underway with various political forces in Georgia."

(...) "If modern political clans, like the workshops of medieval artisans, depicted on their emblems the subject underlying their success and well-being, then Nino Burjanadze's supporters would certainly draw lavash on their emblems. Because their political career the future “steel lady” literally did it with “flour” money, more precisely, with the money of her father, Anzor Burjanadze, the grain magnate of Georgia and a millionaire.

Back in 1993, Andzor Burdzhanadze, thanks to his youth friend Eduard Shevardnadze, received a complete monopoly on the import of grain and flour into the country, heading the state corporation Khleboprodukt. In the hungry years civil warWhen bread became the main, and often the only product on the table, every Georgian family made a contribution to strengthening the welfare of the Burjanadze clan. This family capital allowed Nino to successfully move up the career ladder, form her own party, and win elections.

Having replaced Shevardnadze as the first secretary of the Kutaisi city committee of the Komsomol, Anzor Burjanadze after a while suddenly became the secretary of the party bureau of his native pedagogical institute, which in those years was a serious demotion (they say that because of the female sex). People still say that the reason for this was an accident at a wedding - the death of a person. Either the horsemen were shooting at the apple, setting it on someone's head, or something else. A relative of Anzor Viktorovich's wife took the blame and went to prison, and this relative died in prison due to poor health. Further - and even worse: after the pedagogical institute, Burjanadze finds himself at the Kutaisi Automobile Plant. This is already a real opal.

However, it did not last long. After Shevardnadze headed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia in 1972, that is, he became the first person in the republic, his friend right from automobile plant gets into the Kutaisi city party committee as the head of the administrative department. And six months later, he became the first secretary of the Terjolsky district committee of the CPSU.

Assessing the activities of his friend in this post, Shevardnadze himself later uttered the following phrase: “After Anzor, there were not even copper coins left in Terjoli”.

When Shevardnadze left for Moscow in 1985, the prosecutor's office became interested in Burjanadze's activities. A case was even initiated in connection with the revealed interesting fact: it turned out that, according to official documents, so many rose hips were collected in Terjoli that it could cover the entire territory of the region with a meter layer.

Some more thefts were revealed at the champagne factory. However, the matter was hushed up (a friend of his youth tried again), and the "strong business executive" was thrown into tourism. Heading the Georgian Republican Tourism Council, Burdzhanadze Sr. unleashed his entrepreneurial talent in full force: he ordered to provide all tourist facilities of the republic with bakeries and donkeys. According to his plan, the guests of Georgia were to buy fresh lavash and be photographed riding donkeys, and the income from this would go to the treasury.

"Red Princess"

So Nino Burdzhanadze during the years of Soviet power was by no means a Cinderella, but a real “red princess”. Her family belonged to the same corrupt party-bureaucratic nomenclature, for which, at the end of the era of stagnation, any ideals, including communist ones, became an empty phrase. In the national republics, it was in this environment, along with the dissident, that ideas of independence ripened, which was understood as independence from prosecutorial inspections from Moscow.

“The greatest danger for Georgia is now not represented by nationalists, but by the children of the first secretaries of city and district committees of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, who passed through the Soros Foundation,” one Georgian politician told me. According to him, about a dozen Saakashvili ministers have a similar origin. And former Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze is known throughout Georgia as “the son of Ibest”: his father, also the first secretary of the district committee, received this nickname for his adherence to Stalinism (Joseph Bessarionovich Stalin). Our heroine also belongs to this glorious galaxy. In the Kutaisi school, Nino was the secretary of the Komsomol committee and was nicknamed Kollontai. Soviet diplomat Alexandra Kollontai was her ideal at the time. It was no longer possible to have such ideals in democratic Georgia, and Margaret Thatcher soon took the place of Kollontai. By analogy with Thatcher, the ex-speaker of the Georgian parliament is now called the “steel lady”. Many, however, forget that Mikheil Saakashvili gave her this nickname for her steadfastness and loyalty to the throne, shown during the difficult days for the authorities in November 2007, when the 120,000-strong rally demanded the president's resignation. Then the speaker of parliament forbade to bring blankets to her reception room, where oppositionists were starving. And the protesters hid themselves in newspapers. In the midst of popular unrest, the "steel lady" celebrated her father's birthday in the most luxurious restaurant in Tbilisi.

The secret of her long-term loyalty to Saakashvili in Georgia is explained by the presence of serious compromising evidence on her father and husband, Badri Bitsadze. After the Rose Revolution, Anzor Burdzhanadze, who is considered one of the treasurers of the Shevardnadze clan, was very close to following other corrupt officials from the entourage of Eduard Amvrosievich. In particular, the question arose about the fate of the multi-million dollar Turkish loan allocated to Georgia by the Turkish government in the early 90s. It was also argued that the grain monopoly supplied to Georgia low-quality Turkish flour, which in Turkey itself is prohibited from selling in Istanbul and Ankara.

Nino Burdzhanadze's husband, Badri Bitsadze, her colleague: they studied together at the Faculty of Law of Tbilisi University, then at the graduate school of Moscow State University. We will never know in what proportions love and calculation are mixed in this marriage. Having intermarried with the family of the all-powerful at that time Anzor Burjanadze, Badri's father immediately makes a career breakthrough: he becomes the secretary of the Chiatura city party committee. After Nino was elected speaker of parliament in 2001, her husband, who previously held the post of chief military prosecutor of Georgia, becomes the first deputy prosecutor general of the republic, despite opposition protests. He will only resign during the “Rose Revolution” to soon head the Georgian border department.

In the pink light

In addition to his biological father, Nino Burjanadze also has a political father. Her godfather the same Eduard Shevardnadze took over in politics. To become Nino's godfather not in a figurative, but in literally he did not dare: in those days (she was baptized in 1984), a high-ranking party official would have been immediately kicked out of service for such deeds. Although he could: as a child, she sat on his lap, he was present at her wedding.

Kalbatono Nino's path to politics began in 1992 in the Georgian parliament as a consultant to the Foreign Relations Committee. In 1995, Burjanadze was elected to parliament on the list of Shevardnadze's supporting party “Union of Citizens of Georgia”. She was included in the list on the recommendation of Zurab Zhvania. Most likely, Zhvania was guided here by the consideration that the daughter of a close friend Shevardnadze could significantly strengthen his political position. So Zhvania became the second political father of our heroine.

Many will subsequently be surprised by her reaction to the strange death of Zhvania, which today is considered violent by 90% of the population of Georgia. More precisely, the absence of any intelligible reaction: she fully supported the official version of the "accident".

Apparently, gratitude is not at all one of the main virtues of Nina Anzorovna. Recently, Georgia celebrated the 80th birthday of the writer Nodar Dumbadze. Among those who came to honor his memory was Eduard Shevardnadze. Many came to greet the patriarch of Georgian politics, but Burjanadze was the only one who did not even greet him. And this is after all that this man has done for her family and for her personally! After all, it is obvious that the further ascent of the “steel lady” took place under the strict paternal supervision of the second president of Georgia.

Burjanadze's finest hour came unexpectedly, in the fall of 2001. A political crisis erupted in the country: after Gelayev's unsuccessful campaign from the Pankisi Gorge to Abkhazia, young reformers led by Zurab Zhvania launched an attack on Shevardnadze. However, the forces were still unequal. Shevardnadze resisted, Zhvania left the post of speaker and went into opposition. Burjanadze turned out to be the very compromise figure that suited everyone: she was considered Zhvania's creature, but at the same time was close to the president. However, the final word was said to have been said by the real masters of Georgia at that time - the kings of the underworld. According to former governor Imereti Temur Shashiashvili, in those days in one of the Batumi cafes they saw the famous thief in law Tariel Oniani, who called the parliament members on his mobile phone and gave instructions to vote for Burjanadze.

Just two years later, a velvet coup, called the Rose Revolution, took place in Georgia. Shevardnadze was removed from power, the country was led by a triumvirate of Zhvania, Saakashvili and Burjanadze. The Trinity divided among themselves the highest posts in the state (Saakashvili is the president, Zhvania is the prime minister, Burjanadze is the speaker).

However, soon Burdzhanadze begins to lose influence, she more and more goes into the shadows, yielding positions to the president and prime minister. After Zhvania's death, she completely turns into a figurehead. The final break with Saakashvili occurred this spring, on the eve of the parliamentary elections. Burjanadze announced that she was leaving politics. She was overwhelmed by the fact that she was not allowed to include her people on the electoral list.

After the events in South Ossetia, Burjanadze announces his return to politics. She blames Saakashvili for the lost war and demands early parliamentary elections. On November 23, on the anniversary of the Rose Revolution, the founding congress of the new Democratic Movement - United Georgia party is being held in the basketball hall in Vere Park. It seems that Burjanadze has made a strong move, but perhaps she was late. In the eyes of voters, she is strongly associated with the current regime. Here is how Shevardnadze commented on her break with Saakashvili: “If she had taken such a step in November 2007, when opposition rallies were dispersed and Imedi TV and Radio Company was closed down, she would have gone down in history as a heroine. It's a little late now. ”

Operation "Successor"

Following Burjanadze, her husband, Lieutenant-General Badri Bitsadze, who resigned from the post of head of the border department, also joined the opposition. The ex-border guard immediately made disclosures, naming those who made the decision to storm Tskhinvali by name: these are Saakashvili himself and the people closest to him.

The spouses have almost caught up with radical oppositionists like Shalva Natelashvili in the sharpness of their rhetoric. However, this should not mislead anyone.

Interesting fact: Nino Burjanadze, whom the British Times called "the main political threat" for Saakashvili, freely receives air on the leading Georgian TV channels, which are completely controlled by the authorities.

It is possible that Saakashvili has come to terms with the inevitable loss of power and is now looking for the least traumatic version of its transfer. Burjanadze may turn out to be an ideal candidate for the role of a successor, to whom power will be “velvety” transferred in exchange for guarantees of immunity for the ruling clan. The task is facilitated by the presence of compromising evidence not only on the family of the ex-speaker, but also on herself. Georgian newspapers, for example, not so long ago published Saakashvili's decree on the sale to her for $ 1 of a state dacha in Tskneti, built in Soviet times for party bosses.

It is obvious that some American officials are no less than Georgian ones interested in a leader coming to power in Georgia who will not dig into the dirty linen of the outgoing regime. After all, for example, the question may arise: with what money did Assistant US Deputy Secretary of State Matthew Bryza play his wedding in Istanbul? According to eyewitnesses, the expenses were in the tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars. Perhaps the answer to this question is known by the US Ambassador to Georgia John Tefft, who was present at the wedding.

As for the State Department, it is fundamental for it to maintain the current foreign policy course of Georgia, focus on the United States and NATO. Burjanadze, no doubt, will pursue just such a course, only with her inherent composure and restraint. It is not for nothing that the same Times called her “the woman-symbol of the pro-Western“ Rose Revolution ”.

Apparently, the issue of removing the unruly Saakashvili from power in Washington has already been resolved. And they are ready to place their main stake on Burjanadze.

Unfortunately, in our country some politicians who are far from the political realities of Georgia (or from Russian interests) are enthusiastic about these signals. However, the euphoria from the shame of the hated Saakashvili may soon be replaced by deep frustration upon realizing the fact that instead of the clown, at which the whole world is already laughing, we got a more cold-blooded and insidious, and therefore dangerous enemy at the head of the former fraternal republic.

It is unlikely that Burdzhanadze will become better to relate to our country just because she studied here in graduate school. Nino Burjanadze is another project of Washington, and her coming to power in no way meets the interests of Russia.

Acting President of Georgia Nino Burjanadze is 39 years old. She has two sons, ten and eighteen years old. She is a real Georgian mistress and mother. At the same time, he has been in politics for almost ten years.

Acting President of Georgia Nino Burjanadze is 39 years old. She has two sons, ten and eighteen years old. She is a real Georgian mistress and mother. Moreover, he has been in politics for almost ten years. Her husband, two days before the revolution, of which Burjanadze was one of the leaders, resigned from the post of the first deputy prosecutor of Georgia. He has not yet been invited to the new government, headed by Burjanadze's associate Zurab Zhvania. Her father Anzor Burjanadze in Soviet Georgia served as secretary of the district committee and head of the tourism committee. He was one of the associates of Eduard Shevardnadze, who has not been the president of Georgia for a whole week. In Shevardnadze's former cabinet at the State Chancellery, his daughter now runs the country. For her car, they no longer block .............. streets, as they once did for President Shevardnadze's motorcade.

About what and how she got Georgia, she shared with Izvestia correspondent Natalya RATIANI in the same office with the same furniture and open windows through which the Saturday sun and fresh wind were breaking through.

In the building itself, in front of which a few days ago the flag of the revolution fluttered, nothing has changed yet. The same furniture from the Soviet half-life, shabby walls, a nomenclature smell, and a bulletproof glass door that fences the president's floor. "There are even cockroaches there - so small, red," young guys from Zhvania's team admit with a laugh to Izvestia, "but nothing, soon they won't be there either." As, probably, there will be no 26 volumes of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia of 1976, which Shevardnadze left in his reception room.

From a building with low ceilings and a "heavy aura" - this is what not only representatives say about it new government, who moved into these offices last week, but also the local cleaners who have been working here for a long time - Burjanadze hardly comes out. They work almost around the clock. "The day before yesterday, Saakashvili and Zhvania left my office at 5:30 in the morning, and I remained in it - at half past nine a new working day began. And so almost every day," says Nino Burjanadze, whose face, however, does not even have a shadow of fatigue. On the contrary - a benevolent smile. She is confident in Shevardnadze's huge office.

- Is it true that now in the budget you can scrape together no more than 300 thousand lari (about 150 thousand dollars), while in 2003 the budget of Georgia was slightly more than 1 billion lari?

The budget is almost empty. These days the world community has confirmed its intentions to help Georgia. Our friends, who will allocate money for the elections, will help us conduct them normally and really fairly.

- The forces supporting Shevardnadze, which are now called the new, or "pro-evardnadze" opposition, accuse the new authorities of pro-Western sentiments. Give arguments that there is nothing wrong with this for Georgia. And Russia has no reason to be afraid of anything ...

It is strange to hear the definition of "pro-evardnadze" opposition. I don’t know a single person or a single opposition force in Georgia who, due to circumstances, would not have worked with Shevardnadze for some time over the past 30 years. I am not ashamed of those years when I was next to President Shevardnadze, on the contrary, I am proud of these years. Especially until 1999, Shevardnadze, despite a number of mistakes, made decisions that were necessary to strengthen Georgian independence.

- Is it true that the initial proposals of Igor Ivanov were somewhat different from the final decision?

I can say straightforwardly: Ivanov did not support Shevardnadze's resignation and tried to find a way out without her. However, the situation was so brought to a critical point that I immediately said to Mr. Ivanov: only a miracle will save the situation without the president's resignation, only he can return people to their homes with his statement. What happened was absolutely logical.

"Have mercy, where is Russia oriented?"

Pro-Georgian forces have come to power! I have always said that I am in a pro-Georgian mood. For me, the interests of my state come first. In no case does Georgia's western orientation or the desire to build a truly Western civilization mean that this will be done to the detriment of Russia's legitimate interests.

Yes! We are oriented towards the West. But have mercy, where is Russia oriented? When Russia says that it is very important for it to develop cooperation with NATO as much as possible, it is necessary to join the Schengen Agreement - is that not the West ?!

Some Russian politicians cannot part with their imperial ambitions. Russia can and should be friends with the West, but Georgia cannot. And if Georgia is possible, then only through Moscow. Why do I have to get to the European Union through Moscow, if I can get there by other means? A united, integral and civilized Georgia is in the interests of Russia. As well as in the interests of Georgia - united, civi

lized and democratic Russia.

Our goal is to become a member of NATO, a member of the EU, to integrate as much as possible into other European structures. Our goal is also to develop kind, good-neighborly, mutually beneficial, based on mutual respect relations with Russia.

- Russia announced the possibility of introducing a simplified visa regime with those territories of Georgia where the "stable situation" is. We are talking about Adjara. Don't you think that Russia, in principle, is already ready for a new fragmentation of Georgia?

I don’t want to criticize Russian initiatives, but it’s not working. Please tell me where is the logic? The visa regime was introduced at one time because the territory of Georgia was allegedly not controlled and the situation was unstable. However, the two most unstable regions of Georgia - Abkhazia and the so-called South Ossetia - were excluded from the visa regime. Now it is being stated that one more region needs to be removed from the visa regime, because, on the contrary, it is very stable. All this is not tied to the statements of the President of Russia, whom I respect, Vladimir Putin, that he respects territorial integrity Georgia. We really like these statements, but they need to be proven in practice.

In September in Moscow, at a meeting of the heads of parliaments of the "Caucasian Four" - Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia - I turned to Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov with a proposal to either facilitate or abolish the visa regime throughout Georgia, or establish the same regime for all regions of Georgia ... What is happening now is giving rise to unfavorable conversations in Georgia. Against the background of a difficult political situation, Russia is going to provide Ajaria with visa privileges and does not even inform the Georgian leadership about it. It's not beautiful.

- Weren't you notified by, say, a phone call?

I don't know, maybe someone spoke to Shevardnadze. Nobody called me, nobody was interested in the opinion of the current head of Georgia. I would like to hope that the positive that was brought about by the arrival of Mr. Ivanov in Tbilisi at a difficult time for Georgia will not come to naught. We must start with a new sheet of relations between Georgia and Russia.

"There was no cunning plan."

- There is an opinion that the leader of the electoral race, Mikhail Saakashvili, has long been named by the ex-president as his successor. Do you feel that you are caught in Shevardnadze's net, who just played another tricky combination?

God be with you. This could have been done with other politicians. Saakashvili is a very principled and emotional politician and would hardly agree to such concessions. There was no cunning plan. This is nothing more than speculation. They said that we distributed posts for ourselves in the way Shevardnadze said about it. There were so many funny versions that I am not even going to consider them.

- Did you immediately decide for yourself that the presidency is not for you yet?

I have never longed for great power. It greatly restricts a person's freedom. But I am a very responsible person. Now I have no ambition to become president. We thought that by 2005, perhaps, we would be ready to nominate my candidacy for the presidency. But in 2003 we did not plan to do this.

Mikheil Saakashvili, the leader of the revolution, has received a lot of support from the population over the past two weeks. The nomination of two candidates who would be supported by the same electorate would cause a split in the society. I have no right to disappoint people who expected the opposition to be united. We will not begin to bite each other's throats even because of the presidency.

- It often happens that like-minded people in the revolution then cannot share power, they criticize each other. Saakashvili has already expressed dissatisfaction with a number of your appointments ...

Do you think that issues of state life are resolved without friction and disputes? We have to argue emotionally to find the truth. We just have enough sense to listen to the proposals of the one of us, whose arguments are the most reasonable. Truth is the salvation of the state. Nobody argued with Shevardnadze - this brought the country to such a state. I allowed myself to tell Shevardnadze the truth. That is why for the past four days he hasn't answered the phone at all when I called. I hope that no one among us will come to the point that they will not listen to even unpleasant and different from his own, but true opinion.

- What will save Georgia from disintegration: a federation or a confederation?

We have been saying for a long time that we are ready to take serious steps to resolve internal conflicts that hinder the country's withdrawal from the crisis. A federated device is enough good model, which can be modernized and improved for the benefit of the peoples who live on the territory of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

- At one time you said that in your career as a politician you are guided by Margaret Thatcher. What advice would you like to take now?

Nino Anzorovna Burjanadze was born on July 16, 1964 in Kutaisi. The name Nino is very popular in Georgia - as the legend says, Saint Nino baptized the country with a cross from a grapevine in 337. However, young Nino was attracted by other ideals as a child. After watching the film "Ambassador of the Soviet Union" about the first Soviet female diplomat, Elena Kollontai, she wanted to follow in her footsteps. In 1981 she graduated with honors from the Kutaisi high school No. 2 and entered the Faculty of Law of Tbilisi State University: "At each age in its own way, but was constantly interested in international politics, diplomacy, history of diplomacy - and was preparing to enter the Moscow Institute international relations at the Faculty of International Law. Passed all preliminary interviews. However, my father refused to let one go to Moscow. "

At the age of 20, Nino was baptized: "I am a believer, true, not a fanatic. I hope in God, but I do not often disturb the Almighty with my requests. I believe that it is necessary to solve my questions myself. If God sees that you are just, you try to do good to people, He will always help. "

While studying at TSU, Nino married a young lawyer Badri Bitsadze (now he is the first deputy prosecutor general of the country), and in 1986, after graduating from the university, left for Moscow to study in the postgraduate course of the Department of International Law of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, where in 1990 she defended her thesis on "Problems international organizations and international maritime law". She received a PhD in Law. There, in Moscow, she was not only engaged in science, but together with her husband raised her first-born Anzor. Since 1991 she worked as an associate professor of the Department of International Law and International Relations of TSU, and since 1994 she worked as a scientific In 1991-1992, Nino Burjanadze was an expert-consultant of the Ministry of Ecology of Georgia, and in 1992-1995, an expert-consultant of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament.

In 1995, parliamentary speaker Zurab Zhvania suggested that she run for election on the lists of the Citizens' Union, the party that supported Eduard Shevardnadze at the time. Later, Nino Burjanadze said that if she had to choose between family and career, she would choose a family, but at the same time she would become unhappy without politics, which she had been interested in since childhood. But Nino had wonderful family: "I can honestly say that I became a deputy is the merit of my husband. When I was offered to become a deputy, I very much doubted the decision. At that time I was teaching international law at the Tbilisi University. My husband said that I am doing a wonderful job, but I can do something more for my country. "

This is a very characteristic psychological moment. Ms. Burjanadze will not do anything if she is not sure that someone needs it. And it takes long persuasion from friends and family to inspire her to do something. Nino Anzorovna works calmly - persistently and without jerks.

"I would not have achieved what I have achieved if not for my mother, who shouldered everything on her shoulders. She cooks, she does the laundry, she takes care of my children, and I am practically freed from this work. I have only moral and emotional raising my children. Mom does the rest for me. Naturally, if things were different, I would not be able to devote so much time to work. " - says Burjanadze. - "The eldest son Anzorik - he is 16 years old - is terribly proud of me, he watches all TV shows, reads all the articles, cheers for me, sometimes he makes comments to me - if something is wrong with my hair, in his opinion, or I am not The younger Rezo - he is 8 - is very worried about the lack of communication with me. Once he said with tears that it is not at all necessary to have a mother - the speaker of parliament. " Work is in the first place for her, although in her free moments the speaker likes to cook: "I have an iron rule - to always meet New Year in the family. I bake sweets, and my mother prepares the rest, then we set the table, and then, as usual for everyone. "

So, since 1995, Burjanadze is a member of the Georgian parliament, head of the permanent parliamentary delegation for cooperation with the British parliament and first deputy chairman of the committee on constitutional, legal issues and legality, and in 1998-1999 - the chairman of this committee. 1998-2000 - Rapporteur of the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe). Since 2000 - Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. In 1999-2002 she was co-chair of the committee on parliamentary cooperation between the European Union and Georgia, and in 2000-2001 she was chair of the committee on foreign relations of the Georgian parliament and president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. In general, from 1995 to 2001 - Nino Burjanadze - one of the main foreign policy figures of Georgia, Kollontai from the country of Sakartvelo.

On November 10, 2001, colleagues elected Nino Burjanadze as the chairman of the parliament. Of course, a woman as a speaker is always surprising, although women have played a significant role in the history of Georgia. Let us recall at least the already mentioned Saint Nino or the Holy Noble Queen Tamara the Great. The Georgian Kollontai was immediately compared to Margaret Thatcher, whom she herself considers her idol. About the role of women in politics, Nino says: “It is wrong to think that women politicians are inclined to compromise. In fact, they try to reach a compromise, but if they think that a compromise is unfair, they do not agree to it. And therefore, look - all women ended their political careers in a rather strange way: a symbol of women in politics, the smartest Margaret Thatcher still resigned, Benazir Bhutto was also dismissed, Indira Gandhi was simply killed. These were women who did not compromise. And men are more confident than themselves. feel in the political labyrinths. The woman is more straightforward because she is more honest in politics. "

Against the backdrop of emotional Georgian men, the speaker looks cool. Burjanadze speaks about his own character as follows: “I can be tough, but I don’t like it. I am a non-tough, non-confrontational person by nature. Although if I’m sure of something, it’s difficult to convince me. But you can. I can listen and I can hear. I am a direct person, although, as I myself think, delicate. I speak the truth in any case, but I try to say it in such a form so as not to offend the person, not to hurt his pride. But I always say - or try to say - what I think Of course, this does not help in politics - it does not help far ... I am strong enough - let's say - in representative functions: I can work, I can represent the interests of my country and defend these interests. But I am very weak on the sidelines, absolutely not strong in behind-the-scenes games, and even more so in intrigue. And this can seriously hinder me in my role today. I try to conduct an honest, direct policy. "

Everything in this description is quite accurate, with the exception of delicacy and diplomacy. Nino Anzorovna loves to cut the truth-womb. For example, he can declare that the Georgians and Abkhazians lost the war in Abkhazia, while the Russians won. The quiet and monotonous flow of the protocol-procedural meeting of officials of the countries participating in the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation can literally blow up with an emotional speech, proposing to replace russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia in Ukrainian. As she later admitted, this explosion was caused by the fact that in the booklet circulated at the summit by the Russian side, the disputed territories - South Ossetia and Abkhazia - were, as it were, named between the lines of the regions of the Russian Federation.

The media became interested in the speaker's private life. It turned out that Nino Burjanadze loves classical music, theater, books, pets, especially dogs. Her family includes a Caucasian shepherd dog, a poodle, birds and fish. She likes to keep indoor flowers. She prefers a classic style of clothing, especially at work, and never indulges in excesses either in colors or in styles. Favorite perfume - "Noah" from Kosharel.

Since 1995, the alignment of forces in Georgian politics has seriously changed, and Zurab Zhvania, together with Burjanadze, went into opposition to Shevardnadze, and in November 2003, after the parliamentary elections, they led the speeches of the opponents of the incumbent president. After President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned on November 23, 2003, and. about. Nino Burjanadze became president at the age of 39. Two years ago, after being elected to the post of speaker, Nino Anzorovna in every possible way denied her presidential ambitions, but it is possible that in the upcoming presidential elections she will simply have to stand as a candidate - under pressure from her comrades-in-arms and relatives, who will once again convince her that this is necessary for the country. And, in fact, of the triumvirate that overthrew Shevardnadze, she is the most realistic contender. A lot of dirt has been collected on Mikhail Saakashvili, who has been in politics for a long time. Experienced Zurab Zhvania is also tainted with rumors of gay sexual orientation, and he is also half-Armenian. Nino Burjanadze is young, has not yet had time to compromise herself with anything, educated, but at the same time close to Georgian nationalists. The following scheme can be implemented - the popular and not tainted by anything Burjanadze will become the president of Georgia, and the highly experienced Zhvania will rule behind her.

Nikolay Dzis-Voinarovsky

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Marina Perevozkina

Mikheil Saakashvili now looks like a hen whose head was chopped off: the bird does not yet understand that it is dead, rushes around the yard, flaps its wings. She wants to show everyone that she is alive. This is how Saakashvili flutters, but his fate is sealed: Washington has made a fundamental decision on the need for him to leave. How this will happen and who will take the vacant place will be determined in the very near future. The former speaker of the Georgian parliament Nino Burjanadze is named among the main contenders.

Under the sign of lavash

If modern political clans, like the workshops of medieval artisans, depicted on their coats of arms the subject underlying their success and well-being, then supporters of Nino Burdzhanadze would undoubtedly have painted lavash on their coat of arms. Because the future “steel lady” literally made her political career with “flour” money. More precisely, with the money of his father, Anzor Burjanadze, the grain magnate of Georgia and a millionaire.

Back in 1993, thanks to his youth friend Eduard Shevardnadze, he received a full monopoly on the import of grain and flour into the country, heading the state-owned Khleboprodukt corporation. During the hungry years of the civil war, when bread became the main and often the only product on the table, every Georgian family made a contribution to strengthening the welfare of the Burjanadze clan. This family capital allowed Nino to successfully move up the career ladder, form her own party, and win elections. Apparently, he also played a significant role during the Rose Revolution.

The friendship of these two people dates back to the distant 50s, when they were both students of the Kutaisi Pedagogical Institute. Student friendship is known to be the strongest. We do not know what united them: common hobbies, friendly drinking or girls. In Kutaisi, they say that Anzor Viktorovich was not indifferent to the female sex and subsequently had more than once big troubles in the service due to the fact that today in the West they call the dissonant word “harassment” (sexual harassment - sexual harassment in the workplace. - Author) ... In any case, his career was not as successful as that of his older friend, and sometimes made strange zigzags.

Having replaced Shevardnadze as the first secretary of the Kutaisi city committee of the Komsomol, Anzor Burjanadze after a while suddenly became the secretary of the party bureau of his native pedagogical institute, which in those years was a serious demotion. People still say that the reason for this was an accident at a wedding - the death of a person. Either the horsemen were shooting at the apple, setting it on someone's head, or something else. A relative of Anzor Viktorovich's wife took the blame and went to prison, and this relative died in prison due to poor health. Further - and even worse: after the pedagogical institute, Burjanadze finds himself at the Kutaisi Automobile Plant. This is already a real disgrace.

However, it did not last long.

After Shevardnadze headed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia in 1972, that is, became the first person in the republic, his friend went straight from the automobile plant to the Kutaisi city committee of the party as the head of the administrative department. And six months later, he became the first secretary of the Terjolsky district committee of the CPSU.

Assessing the activities of his friend in this post, Shevardnadze himself later uttered the following phrase: “After Anzor, there were not even copper coins left in Terjoli”.

When Shevardnadze left for Moscow in 1985, the prosecutor's office became interested in Burjanadze's activities. A case was even initiated in connection with an interesting fact that was discovered: it turned out that, according to official documents, so many rose hips were collected in Terjoli that it could cover the entire territory of the region with a meter layer.

"Red Princess"

“The greatest danger for Georgia is now not represented by nationalists, but by the children of the first secretaries of city and district committees of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, who passed through the Soros Foundation,” one Georgian politician told me. According to him, about a dozen of Saakashvili ministers have a similar origin. And former Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze is known throughout Georgia as “the son of Ibest”: his father, also the first secretary of the district committee, received this nickname for his adherence to Stalinism (Joseph Bessarionovich Stalin). Our heroine belongs to this glorious galaxy. In the Kutaisi school, Nino was the secretary of the Komsomol committee and was nicknamed Kollontai. Soviet diplomat Alexandra Kollontai was her ideal at the time. It was no longer possible to have such ideals in democratic Georgia, and Margaret Thatcher soon took the place of Kollontai. By analogy with Thatcher, the ex-speaker of the Georgian parliament is now called the “steel lady”. Many, however, forget that Mikheil Saakashvili gave her this nickname for her steadfastness and loyalty to the throne, shown during the difficult days for the authorities in November 2007, when the 120,000-strong rally demanded the president's resignation. Then the speaker of parliament forbade to bring blankets to her reception room, where oppositionists were starving. And the protesters hid themselves in newspapers. In the midst of popular unrest, the "steel lady" celebrated her father's jubilee in the most luxurious restaurant in Tbilisi.

From the nomenclature past, Nina Anzorovna brought out refined habits: she loves exquisite expensive perfumes, dresses in Vienna in Vogue salons, visits a hairdresser every (!) Morning and does not hesitate to appear in public in pearl necklaces in a poor country. Rumor has it that on trips abroad, she sometimes takes her dog with her.

In the pink light

In addition to his biological father, Nino Burjanadze also has a political father. The same Eduard Shevardnadze became her godfather in politics. He did not dare to become Nino's godfather, not in a figurative, but in a literal sense: in those days (she was baptized in 1984), a high-ranking party official would be immediately kicked out of service for such deeds. Although he could: as a child, she sat on his lap, he was present at her wedding.

Burjanadze's finest hour came unexpectedly, in the fall of 2001. A political crisis erupted in the country: after Gelayev's unsuccessful campaign from the Pankisi Gorge to Abkhazia, young reformers led by Zurab Zhvania launched an attack on Shevardnadze. However, the forces were still unequal. Shevardnadze resisted, Zhvania left the post of speaker and went into opposition. Burjanadze turned out to be the very compromise figure that suited everyone: she was considered Zhvania's creature, but at the same time was close to the president. However, the final word was said to have been said by the real masters of Georgia at that time - the kings of the underworld. According to the former governor of Imereti Temur Shashiashvili, in those days in one of the Batumi cafes they saw the famous thief in law Tariel Oniani, who called parliament members on his mobile phone and gave instructions to vote for Burjanadze.

Operation "Successor"

The spouses have almost caught up with radical oppositionists like Shalva Natelashvili in the sharpness of their rhetoric. However, this should not mislead anyone.

Apparently, the issue of removing the unruly Saakashvili from power in Washington has already been resolved. And they are ready to place their main stake on Burjanadze.

Another serious mistake of Russian analysts is the delusion that there are no forces in Georgia on which Moscow could rely. The forces that will offer Georgia a fundamentally new way of development are and may soon show themselves there. So far, in a chess game, we are losing to the West. But the very rules of the game may change tomorrow.

Badri Bitsadze - husband of Nino Burjanadze

Biography. Biography Education and the beginning of professional activity

Childhood and youth

Career and politics

Personal life

Nino Burjanadze now

"Have mercy, where is Russia oriented?"

"There was no cunning plan."

Under the sign of lavash

However, it did not last long.

"Red Princess"

In the pink light

Operation "Successor"

The last

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