Vano Merabishvili

By late 2008 Merabishvili had become one of the most influential figures in the government of Georgia. He was energetically involved in the protest movement following the November 2003 parliamentary elections which led to Shevardnadze’s resignation in the bloodless Rose Revolution. Education and NGO career
Merabishvili was born in the largely Georgian Roman Catholic village of Ude in what is now Samtskhe-Javakheti region in south Georgia then a Soviet republic.

A former NGO activist he became directly involved in Georgia's politics in 1999 and emerged as one of the government's most influential members after the 2003 Rose Revolution especially as Georgia's Minister of Internal Affairs (28 December 2004–4 July 2012).