18 Facts About Shalva Natelashvili

Shalva Natelashvili was born on 17 February 1958 and is a Georgian politician.

Shalva Natelashvili founded the Georgian Labour Party and has served as its chair since 1995.

Shalva Natelashvili is a president of the International Geopolitical Center.

Shalva Natelashvili was born in the town of Pasanauri, in the northern mountainous part of Georgia.

Shalva Natelashvili graduated from Tbilisi State University faculty of law in 1981 and pursued his post-graduate degree at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, majoring in international law.

Shalva Natelashvili started his political career in 1992 when he won election to the Parliament of Georgia and became a majoritarian MP for the Dusheti region.

Shalva Natelashvili was then elected Head of Committee for Legal Affairs and chaired the Parliamentary Committee for First Constitution of Georgia.

Shalva Natelashvili is an author of the laws about citizenship, gun laws, the legal status of people without citizenship, parliamentary commissions and committees, parliamentary factions and political parties, the legal status of foreign citizens, and immigration and migration.

Shalva Natelashvili led the procedures to ensure that Georgia was integrated with international treaties of human rights.

Shalva Natelashvili won reelection in 1995 in the first round of the elections in the Dusheti single-member constituency.

Shalva Natelashvili was a member of parliamentary bureau and collegium, chairman of the Elector's faction and Labour Party's faction in parliament.

Shalva Natelashvili served as the co-chair of the parliamentary coalition United Georgia.

Shalva Natelashvili alleged that the elections were rigged by the ruling Union of Citizens of Georgia.

On 13 June 2002, in a surprise move, Shalva Natelashvili announced that he would not seek the chairmanship of Tbilisi City Assembly, instead supporting another opposition leader, future President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose United National Movement finished in 2nd place.

Shalva Natelashvili's supporters believed that he wasted a great opportunity to further boost popularity of his party.

Many have opined that Shalva Natelashvili renounced the chairmanship because he "was only talk and unable to do the real work".

In November 2007, Shalva Natelashvili led the anti-governmental protest rallies and the demonstrations were forcefully dissolved.

Shalva Natelashvili has allegedly survived several assassination attempts, including a blast at the Georgian Labour Party's head office, which killed party activist Nino Giorgobiani.