Irakli Kobakhidze

Irakli Kobakhidze (Georgian: ირაკლი კობახიძე; born 25 September 1978) is a Georgian politician who holds the position of the 16th prime minister of Georgia since 2024 and chairman of Georgian Dream since 2025, having previously served in this role from 2021 to 2024.

A member of Georgian Dream, Kobakhidze previously served as a member of the Georgian Parliament from 2016 to 2024, the sixth chairman of the Parliament of Georgia from 2016 to 2019, and the vice-president of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2020 to 2022. Prior to joining politics, he was a professor at the Tbilisi State University and also worked for Western-funded non-governmental organizations.

Kobakhidze is one of the main propagators of the "Global War Party" conspiracy theory. His government accelerated the deterioration of relations with the West and has been accused of internationally sabotaging Georgia’s EU membership bid. The United States announced sanctions against Kobakhidze, members of his government, and the members of the Georgian Dream party for "undermining democracy in Georgia." Under Kobakhidze's tenure, Georgia has undergone democratic backsliding, violence and torture of protesters opposing ruling party policies, and a shift towards authoritarianism. His rhetoric has been widely described as anti-Western, with him accusing the West of pushing Georgia into "opening a second front" and joining the Russo-Ukrainian War on numerous occasions.

Kobakhidze is a largely nominal figurehead of the Georgian government and is ultimately accountable to Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire oligarch who is widely recognized as the de facto ruler of Georgia.

Irakli Kobakhidze was born on 25 September 1978 in Tbilisi. His father, Giorgi (Gia) Kobakhidze, was a member of the Parliament in the third and fourth legislature, becoming its vice-president, for the National Democratic Party, and was also member of the Democratic Movement – United Georgia until 2015. Irakli graduated from the Law Faculty of Tbilisi State University in 2000. Later, from 2002 to 2006, he advanced his legal education at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany, where he was awarded a master's degree in law and a PhD in 2006.

Between 2000 and 2001 he was the regional coordinator of the public education project of the United States Agency for International Development and, between 2006 and 2014, as a project expert and project manager at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Between 2005 and 2012 Kobakhidze was assistant professor at the Tbilisi State University and associate professor of the Caucasus University between 2011 and 2014. He was also a member of the "Open Society-Georgia Foundation"' committee of experts of the human rights and rule of law program and member of the Georgian delegation to the Council of Europe between 2011 and 2012. Since 2014 he has been an associate professor at Tbilisi State University.

In 2015, Kobakhidze was appointed as Executive Secretary of Georgia's ruling party Georgian Dream, alongside Secretary General Kakha Kaladze. As the deputy campaign manager for the 2016 parliamentary election, and the campaign manager for the 2017 local elections, he played an important role in the party's landslide victories. In 2016, Kobakhidze was himself elected to the Georgian Parliament by party list.

On 18 November 2016, Kobakhidze was appointed as the chairman of the Parliament of Georgia with 118 votes in favour and 3 against. Under his tenure, Inter-Parliamentary Assemblies between Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova and Georgia and Poland were established. In addition, strategic cooperation agreements were signed with a number of the Parliaments of the partner countries such as the Poland, Latvia, Uzbekistan and Serbia. On his initiative, the plenary session room of the Parliament was given the name of the first democratically elected president of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia.