Premier for three months

Prime Minister of Georgia Grigol Mgaloblishvili resigned. A government source explained that the reason was deteriorating health. At the end of last year, it became known that the 35-year-old prime minister had complications with his kidneys due to extremely stressful work. He went to Germany for treatment and returned to work only on January 28. Meanwhile, shortly before information about deteriorating health appeared, there were reports of an ugly scandal between the prime minister and President Mikheil Saakashvili, who allegedly threw a mobile phone at Mgaloblishvili and slapped him in the face. The prime minister submitted his letter of resignation, but the president did not sign it, and soon publicly thanked the head of government for his dedicated work.

Grigol Mgaloblishvili was appointed prime minister in October 2008 after a series of dismissals in the government. Before that, he worked for a long time as an ambassador in different countries. In recent days, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Grigol Vashadze, who was also appointed quite recently, has been named as a likely candidate for the post of prime minister. However, ITAR-TASS reported that Mgaloblishvili's first deputy and Finance Minister Nika Gilauri will most likely be appointed prime minister. Saakashvili has already presented his candidacy.