Former Georgian President Zourabichvili awarded in Moldova for "fight for country’s European future"
Zourabichvili awarded in Moldova
Former Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has been awarded the “Order of the Republic” by Moldovan President Maia Sandu. The corresponding decree was signed on Monday, 26 May.
The order is awarded for “upholding and promoting human dignity, human rights, and peace, as well as for the consistent fight for Georgia’s European future.”
Salome Zourabichvili’s political biography in Georgia
Salome Zourabichvili is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies.
She served as Georgia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2004–2005, during the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili. As minister, Zourabichvili was the chief negotiator for the agreement on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgian territory, which was signed on 19 May 2005.
She later moved into opposition to Saakashvili and his United National Movement party.
In 2006, Zourabichvili founded the political party The Way of Georgia, which she led until 2010.
In 2016, she was elected to the Georgian parliament as an independent candidate. As an independent again, but with the backing of the Georgian Dream party founded by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, she won the 2018 presidential election.
In the second round of the election, she received 59.52% of the vote, while her opponent, Grigol Vashadze of the opposition Strength in Unity movement, received 40.48%.
Amid the political crisis in Georgia in 2020–2021, Salome Zourabichvili increasingly distanced herself from Georgian Dream. By the end of her presidential term in December 2024, she was — and remains — a sharp critic of the ruling party and its honorary chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili, whom she accuses of pursuing a pro-Russian orientation.
