Vakhtang Kapanadze

Vakhtang Kapanadze

Vakhtang Kapanadze, 2014
Born August 17, 1960
Tbilisi, Soviet Union
(now Georgia)
Allegiance  Georgia
Service/branch Georgian Armed Forces
Land Forces
Years of service 1990–present
Rank
Commands held
  • Georgian Peacekeeping Battalion in South Ossetia
  • Georgian Armed Forces
Battles/wars Abkhazian War
Iraq War
Afghanistan War
Russo-Georgian war
Awards

Vakhtang Kapanadze (Georgian: ვახტანგ კაპანაძე) (born August 17, 1960) is a Georgian major general who is Chief of General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces since November 22, 2013. He held the same command from August 2004 to February 2005. Prior he was in charge of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion deployed in South Ossetia before the war broke out.

Kapanadze graduated from the Faculty of Geography and Geology, Tbilisi State University, in 1983. He then studied at Georgia's Academy of Interior and has also been trained at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, National Academy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and U.S. Army War College. A veteran of the civil wars of the early 1990s, Kapanadze commanded a Georgian peacekeeping battalion in South Ossetia in 2004 and served as the Chief of the General Staff from August 2004 to February 2005.[1] In 2005, he briefly served as a military aide to the President of Georgia, and was then employed as a special envoy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia in Poland from 2007 to 2008. He was deputy head of the foreign intelligence service of Georgia from 2008 until October 2012, when Brigadier General Kapanadze was appointed Deputy Chief of Joint Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces. He again became Chief of General Staff, succeeding Colonel Irakli Dzneladze, on November 22, 2013.[2][3] On this occasion, he was promoted to major general. He is the recipient of the orders of Honor and Vakhtang Gorgasali, 3rd Rank.

References

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Military offices
Preceded by
Givi Iukuridze
Chief of General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces
2004 2005
Succeeded by
Levan Nikoleishvili
Preceded by
Irakli Dzneladze
Chief of General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces
2013
Succeeded by
Incumbent