President Zurabishvili Names Her Team
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, December 26
Georgian newly elected first female President Salome Zurabishvili has nominated the core of her team. She stated that the number of her advisors will grow when all the necessary legal procedures are over and the new residency on Atoneli Street in central Tbilisi is fully rehabilitated.
Zurabishvili told the media that Lasha Zhvania will head her administration.
The other team members are as follows:
Ketevan Makharashvili - deputy head of administration, coordinating the president’s activities in terms of gender and ethnic issues.
Dimitri Gabunia - the president’s parliamentary secretary. He will temporarily serve as the president’s press speaker.
Simon Petrits- the president’s advisor for people with disabilities.
Natia Sulava- the advisor for diaspora and citizenship issues.
Aleksi Barbakadze - the advisor for military issues.
Irina Shengelia - the advisor for public relations and media.
Kote Natsvlishvili - the advisor for culture, education and science.
Zurabishvili also presented an intern in her administration, a Georgian in origin born in emigration in France, who will become a member of the administration after the internship.
Zurabishvili, the fifth President of Georgia, was inaugurated on 16 December amid the opposition’s protests regarding the fabrication of elections.
She made a decision not to live in the Avlabari Presidential Palace built by the third President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and instead chose the palace on the Atoneli Street which is connected to the name of Georgian aristocrats.
