Levan Varshalomidze
| Levan Varshalomidze | |
|---|---|
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Levan Varshalomidze with the United States ambassador John Bass in 2009
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| Chairman of the Government of Adjara | |
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In office July 20, 2004 – October 30, 2012 |
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| Preceded by | Aslan Abashidze |
| Succeeded by | Archil Khabadze |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
January 17, 1972 Batumi, Adjara |
| Nationality | Georgian |
| Political party | United National Movement |
| Residence | Batumi, Adjara |
| Alma mater | Kiev State University (PhD, LL.M.) |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Religion | Georgian Orthodox Christian |
| Website | www.lv.ge |
Levan Varshalomidze (Georgian: ლევან ვარშალომიძე) (born 17 January 1972) is a Georgian politician and the Chairman of the Government of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara from 2004 to 2012. He assumed office on 20 July 2004, following the resignation of Aslan Abashidze—who had run the region in defiance to the central government of Georgia—during the 2004 Adjara crisis.
Varshalomidze was born in Batumi. He graduated with a degree in law, in 1994, from the Kiev State University, where he befriended a fellow Georgian student, Mikheil Saakashvili. He obtained a PhD from the same institution in 1999 and joined the ranks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. In 2000, when Saakashvili was the minister of justice of Georgia, he appointed Varshalomidze to head one of its bureaus. After a brief service with the Ministry of Finance of Georgia in 2002, he retired to a private sector. After Georgia's November 2003 Rose Revolution, which brought Saakashvili to power, Varshalomidze was appointed Director of the Georgian Railways in January 2004.
Varshalomidze returned to politics following the departure of Aslan Abashidze, a longtime Adjara strongman, who resigned following a showdown with Saakashvili's government on 6 May 2004. His family has been associated with the region's politics since the 1990s. His father, Guram Varshalomidze, an erstwhile ally of Abashidze, chaired the Supreme Council of Adjara in the mid-1990s, later headed the region's statistics office and would lead the Georgian Oil Corporation from July 2004 to 2005.
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