Davit Bakradze

David Bakradze was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR. He was educated at Georgian Technical University and the Georgian Institute for Public Affairs (GIPA) as well as gaining a Doctor's degree in Physics and Mathematics from Tbilisi State University. Apart from numerous high-profile government positions Bakradze has been actively involved in various educational programmes attending the Swiss International Relations Institute in Geneva, in 1997, and studying at George Marshall European Centre for Security Studies in Germany in 1998. In 2001 Bakradze graduated from NATO Defence College, Rome, Italy. He has served in the National Guard of Georgia Reserve and is a lieutenant commander.

Bakradze has been actively involved in Georgian politics since 1997. He worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia from 1997 to 2002, and for the National Security Council of Georgia from 2002 to 2004. In April 2004, he was elected to the Parliament of Georgia from the United National Movement (UNM) led by the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili. He chaired the Parliamentary Committee for the Euro-Atlantic Integration until July 19, 2007 when he was appointed as a Minister for the Conflict Issues, and hence, a chief negotiator in the Abkhazian and South Ossetian affairs. In January 2008, he became the Foreign Minister of Georgia in the cabinet of the Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze.

On April 21, 2008, Bakradze was named to lead the UNM party list in the parliamentary election scheduled on May 21, 2008. This decision came after the chairperson of the outgoing parliament, Nino Burjanadze, refused, in a surprise move, to lead the party list due to her disagreement with the UNM leadership.[2]

On June 7, 2008, Bakradze was unanimously elected a chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia at that legislature's inaugural session.[3] In 2012 he was again selected again selected to lead the UNM list for the October 1 parliamentary election, which was won by the Bidzina Ivanishvili-Georgian Dream opposition coalition. Consequently, Bakradze became the leader of the parliamentary minority, being succeeded by David Usupashvili, a Georgian Dream member, as the chairman of the parliament.[4]

In 2013, Bakradze was selected to be the UNM's candidate through internal party election, primaries for the 27 October presidential election. He ended up second in the race and, shortly after the exit poll results were announced, congratulated Georgian Dream's candidate Giorgi Margvelashvili on victory.[5] In the 2018 election, he came in third and received nearly 11 percent of the vote; for the run-off, he announced he would support Grigol Vashadze in the second round.[6]

Bakradze was awarded the Commander's Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland by the President of Poland (2010).[7]

• Bakradze - Government of Georgia Website
• Davit Bakradze on Facebook