Salome Zourabichvili
 Salome Zourabichvili          (politician) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 18 March 1952 Paris, France | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Georgian, French | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Sciences Po, Columbia University | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | • Nicolas Gorjestani • Janri Kashia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spooky French diplomat who was parachuted in to become President of Georgia in 2018
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Salome Zourabichvili is a spooky French diplomat who became President of Georgia in 2018.
She wants to take her country into NATO and the European Union, and has criticised Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili for not giving enough support to Ukraine.[1]
On 14 December 2024, when Mikheil Kavelashvili was installed as the new president, Zourabichvili told Al Jazeera that Georgia needed a “legitimate president” voted by the people, rather than by “a parliament that has not received legitimacy”.[2]
Background
Zourabichvili was born in Paris, France into a family of Georgian political refugees. Salome's grandfather's name was Meki (Mehisedek) Kedia, until 1921 he was head of the secret police of Georgia (a short-lived British puppet state) and fought against the USSR.[3][4]
Meka also had a son, Mikhail Kedia, who, after the outbreak of World War II, began to cooperate with Nazi Germany and personally with Reinhard Heydrich, where he was head of the Georgian section of the RSHA, and even received a German passport in Berlin on March 15, 1943. A 1948 CIA document lists him as a Gestapo official.[5]
Mikhail participated in Operation Zeppelin, a top secret German plan to recruit Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) for espionage and sabotage operations in the Balkans and behind the Russian front line during World War II.[6]
According to British documents, Kedia as "a character was much more obvious and more advanced, from the National-Socialist point of view" and "regarded himself as a potential leader of Georgia."[7]
According to CIA declassified information in 2001, "In mid-1944, as the defeat of Germany became increasingly likely, Kedia tried to contact the Allies to offer his services. He claimed to have saved the lives of some Jews in France." Despite Kedia's offer to work for U.S. intelligence, the OSS and later the CIA rebuffed his offers. One CIA report described him as a man "with a long bad record" .Not all U.S. agencies viewed Kedia warily. Until December 1948 Kedia allegedly served as an informant for the Counterintelligence Corps, although the CIA file does not disclose how active he was."[8]
Career
Salome Zourabichvili joined the French diplomatic service in the 1970s and went on to occupy a variety of increasingly senior diplomatic positions over three decades. From 2003 to 2004, she was the Ambassador of France to Georgia.
She became a Georgian citizen in 2003, in connection with the color revolution at that time, and was appointed Foreign Minister of Georgia.[9]
| Address to the Oxford Union on in January 2023 |
Events Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brussels Forum/2009 | 20 March 2009 | 22 March 2009 | Belgium Brussels | Yearly discreet get-together of huge amount of transatlantic politicians, media and military and corporations, under the auspices of the CIA and NATO-close German Marshall Fund. |
| Munich Security Conference/2023 | 17 February 2023 | 19 February 2023 | Germany Munich Bavaria | Annual conference of mid-level functionaries from the military-industrial complex - politicians, propagandists and lobbyists. The real decisions are made by deep politicians behind the scenes, elsewhere. |
| Munich Security Conference/2024 | 16 February 2024 | 18 February 2024 | Germany Munich Bavaria | Annual conference of mid-level functionaries from the military-industrial complex - politicians, propagandists and lobbyists - in their own bubble, far from the concerns of their subjects |
References
- ↑ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/fistfight-erupts-georgia-parliament-over-russian-inspired-foreign-agent-law-2023-03-06/
- ↑ "Georgia installs former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili as new president"
- ↑ Zourabichvili, Salomé (2006). "Mon oncle Micha (1900-1953) et mon oncle Georges (1899-1944)". Une femme pour deux pays. Paris: Grasset & Fasquelle. ISBN 9782246695615.
- ↑ https://ge.news-pravda.com/en/georgia/2024/12/06/3412.html
- ↑ https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/KEDIA%2C%20MICHAEL_0069.pdf
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Zeppelin_(espionage_plan)
- ↑ https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11527075
- ↑ https://www.archives.gov/iwg/declassified-records/rg-263-cia-records/rg-263-report.html
- ↑ https://www.ft.com/content/070d1514-d774-11e8-a854-33d6f82e62f8
