Vakhtang Kapanadze

Vakhtang Kapanadze
Vakhtang Kapanadze, 2014
Born	(1960-08-17) 17 August 1960 Tbilisi, Soviet Union (now Georgia)
Allegiance	Georgia
Service / branch	Georgian Armed Forces Land Forces
Years of service	1990–present
Rank
Commands	Georgian Armed Forces 2003–2004, Georgian Peacekeeping Battalion in South Ossetia 2004–2005, Chief of General Staff 2008–2012, Deputy Chief of Counter Intelligence 2013–2016, Chief of General Staff
Battles / wars	Abkhazian War Iraq War Afghanistan War Russo-Georgian war
Awards

Vakhtang Kapanadze (Georgian: ვახტანგ კაპანაძე) (born 17 August 1960) is a Georgian major general who was Chief of General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces from 22 November 2013 to 22 November 2016. 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.

Career

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. 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 22 November 2013. On this occasion, he was promoted to major general. His term expired on 22 November 2016 and was succeeded by Brigadier General Vladimer Chachibaia. He was appointed as Georgia's top military representative to NATO. Kapanadze is the recipient of the orders of Honor and Vakhtang Gorgasali, 3rd Rank.