Mamuka Bakhtadze (Georgian: მამუკა ბახტაძე; born 9 June 1982) is a Georgian politician who served as the country's Prime Minister from 20 June 2018 until 2 September 2019. Bakhtadze announced his official statement about resignation via Facebook post. He had previously served as Minister of Finance (2017–2018) and, prior to that, executive director of the Georgian Railway company (2013–2017).
On 13 November 2017, Bakhtadze was appointed Minister of Finance in the second cabinet of Giorgi Kvirikashvili. Kvirikashvili stepped down as Prime Minister on 13 June 2018, citing his differences with Bidzina Ivanishvili, a recently reappointed influential chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, and triggering the resignation of the entire cabinet.[3]
Georgian Dream nominated Bakhtadze, 36 years old at that time, as Kvirikashvili's successor. By that time, he was largely a political unknown; 55% of respondents had not heard of him according to a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute in May 2018, two weeks before Bakhtadze's nomination. He was widely considered to have been Ivanishvili's personal choice and a close friend of the Ivanishvili family.
Bakhtadze's incoming cabinet won the parliamentary vote of confidence with 99 votes in favor to 6 against on 20 June 2018.[4] The cabinet was reconfirmed, with 101 votes in favor to 12 against, by the parliament on 14 July after the previously announced structural reforms in the cabinet ministries were implemented.[5] Bakhtadze pledged to continue Georgia's Euro-Atlantic integration and implement "fundamental and innovative reforms". Bakhtadze's nomination was heavily criticized by the parliamentary opposition, especially, European Georgia and United National Movement.[4][5]
Bakhtadze's first foreign visit was to Brussels in July 2018, during which he reaffirmed in his meetings with European officials that Georgia remained committed to its European Union aspirations.[6] In his address to the UN General Assembly in September 2018, Bakhtadze denounced the ongoing Russian military presence in breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia and spoke of Georgia's new peace initiatives offered to these entities.[7]
During his tenure as prime minister, the government adopted Otkhozoria–Tatunashvili List to sanction Abkhazians and South Ossetians responsible for crimes committed against Georgians in separatist regions.[8]
Bakhtadze unveiled various economic and political reform plans in 2018, such as those in education system[9] and related to green economy, including the Clean Transport policy.[10] He was involved in a campaign to support Salome Zourabichvili's candidacy to the presidency of Georgia and welcomed her election as a "victory for democracy" in November 2018.[11]
On 2 September 2019 Bakhtadze resigned from his position as prime minister. In a letter he published on Facebook he stated that he "decided to resign because I believe I have fulfilled my mission at this point."[12]
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