Topic: Nino Burjanadze

Nino Burjanadze (Georgian: ნინო ბურჯანაძე IPA: , also romanized Burdzhanadze or Burdjanadze, born 16 July 1964) is a Georgian politician and lawyer who served as Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia from November 2001 to June 2008. She has served as the acting head of state of Georgia twice; the first time from 23 November 2003 to 25 January 2004 in the wake of Eduard Shevardnadze's resignation during the Rose Revolution, and again from 25 November 2007 to 20 January 2008, when Mikheil Saakashvili stepped down to rerun in the early presidential elections.

Nino Burjanadze was born in Kutaisi, then-Soviet Georgia. She graduated in 1986 from the Faculty of Law of the Tbilisi State University (TSU) and afterwards pursued education at the Moscow State University from which she graduated with a doctorate in International Law in 1990. In 1991, she became an docent (Associate Professor) of the Faculty of International Law at the Tbilisi State University. At the same time, she worked as an expert-consultant in international law for the Parliament of Georgia and the Ministry for Environment Protection and Natural Resources.

In 1995, Burjanadze was elected to the Parliament of Georgia from the Union of Citizens of Georgia (UCG) then chaired by the President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze and supported financially by her father Anzor Burjanadze, a wealthy businessman.. She first chaired the Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Law from 1998 to 1999, and the Parliamentary Committee for International Relations from 2000 to 2001. During the years, she became known as a supporter of pro-Western values and proponent of Georgia's integration with NATO and the European Union. She was closely allied with the reformist wing within the UCG led by Mikheil Saakashvili and Zurab Zhvania whom she succeeded on November 9 as the paliamentary chairperson after Zhvania resigned on November 1 2001.