Shota Kviraia

Shota Kviraia (Georgian: შოთა კვირაია) (June 5, 1952 – January 10, 2011) was a Georgian security and police official and lieutenant-general of the state security service. A former KGB officer, he was an influential member of Eduard Shevardnadze's government in the mid-1990s.

Born in Tskhakaia (now Senaki), then-Soviet Georgia, Kviraia was educated as an engineer at the Tbilisi State Polytechnical Institute and then as a jurist at the Tbilisi State University. He joined the ranks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia in 1977. He served as an officer in the unit for fighting corruption in Sukhumi (1977–1984) and then in Tbilisi (1984–1990). During the Georgian Civil War, he was chief of police in Zugdidi, where he was involved in combat operations against the supporters of the ousted President Zviad Gamsakhurdia. He became Minister of Internal Affairs in the government of Eduard Shevardnadze in 1993 and succeeded his rival, the disgraced Igor Giorgadze as a state security chief, now turned into a separate ministry, in 1995.[1] He was accused by the opposition and rights groups of personally torturing prisoners, involvement in the summary execution of six men in 1993, collaboration with the Russian security services, and of telephone tapping.[2] Eventually, in 1997, he was forced to resign.[3][4] Since then he lived in Moscow. He died there, of renal failure, and was buried in Tbilisi.[5]

References

  1. "Georgian Cabinet Approved". Eurasian Monitor. Volume 1. Issue 158. December 20, 1995. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  2. Aves, Jonathan (1999). "Georgia: History". Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Routledge. p. 362. ISBN 1857430581.
  3. Darchiashvili, David (April 2003). "Georgia: A hostage to arms". In Mateeva A.; Hiscock, D. The Caucasus: Armed and Divided (pdf). London: Saferworld. pp. 4, 11. ISBN 0948546913. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  4. "Georgian security minister resigns in wiretapping scandal". Eurasia Monitor. Volume 3. Issue 132. July 8, 1997. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  5. "Экс-глава МВД и КГБ Грузии Шота Квирая скончался в Москве [Ex-head of Georgian MIA and CSS dies in Moscow]" (in Russian). RIA Novosti. 11 January 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
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