2019

He is currently a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Strategic Studies, University of Warsaw.

His research interests are: Black Sea region, Maritime Security in the Black Sea Region and Eastern Mediterranean; Russia and the Middle East; Human Right Situation in Crimea and the Crimean Tatars; Sea of Azov and Ukrainian Naval Policy.

Ridvan writes analytical articles to different analytical centers for example: ECFR, Jamestown Foundation, War Room (U.S. War College) The Proceedings (U.S. Naval Institute), Jerusalem Post and etc. He has experience of working in the European Parliament in the Subcommittee of the Security and Defense and responsible for the Eastern European and Black Sea regions and Russia.  And teaching an ERASMUS course – “Russia and the Middle East: Geopolitics and Diplomacy” in the University of Warsaw. Ridvan born in Abkhazia, Georgia and till Civil War was living there, at the begging of nineties he moved to Crimea where he lived until the annexation of Crimea.

At the moment of annexation he worked in the Sevastopol State Administration. Right after annexation worked as Human Rights Officer in Odessa, Ukraine in the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission. He finished Estonian Diplomatic Academy in 2015 and completed The Indigenous Fellowship Programme (IFP) is a comprehensive human rights training programme that was established by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva. Ridvan give a speech at the Human Rights Council in 2018 about situation in annexed by Russia Crimea

Tamar Toria has been holding the position of Executive Director at the Georgian Farmers’ Association (GFA) since January 2015. She is responsible for general operations of the organization, its advocacy mandate, as well as fundraising and overall supervision of donor-funded projects within GFA.She represents GFA and its member farmers at different working groups and boards and carries forward key messages respectively.

Prior to joining the Association, Tamar has worked on economic development and agriculture programs in the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia and with different donor organizations such as DfID, MCC, USAID, and others.

Tamar graduated from Tbilisi I. Chavchavadze State Institute of Foreign Languages and holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Georgian-American Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA). She has obtained numerous certificates from various courses both at home and abroad and is currently pursuing Mastery of Management Graduate Diploma program in Corporate Strategy & Planning at International Cambridge College.

Zurab Tchiaberashvili, MP, joined public service in 2003 as the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Georgia. He was Mayor of Tbilisi (2004-2005), Permanent Representative of Georgia to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, to the UN office and other organizations in Geneva (2005-2012), Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs (2012) and Governor of the Kakheti region (2013). He has a rank of Ambassador of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia (since 2007).

Zurab Tchiaberashvili has MBA (2009) from Joint program with Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA, and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany, and Ph.D. in Philosophy (1999) from Tbilisi State University, Georgia. He translated Robert Putnam’s “Making Democracy Work” (published in 2005) and John Rawls’ “Political Liberalism” (published in 2018) from English into Georgian.

Olga Stuzhinskaya is a seasoned international relations and development professional specialized in the region of the Former Soviet Union (FSU). She is the founder and former director of the Brussels-based Office for a Democratic Belarus (2006-2015) that sought to strengthen ties between Belarus and the European Union (EU). She is also a co-founder of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, and was Member of its Steering Committee. The EU’s Eastern Partnership initiative aims at closer political and economic ties with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

In her present capacity of independent Senior Consultant, Olga delivers expertise to the European Union and international organizations – Council of Europe, UN agencies, OSCE -, governments, NGOs and business companies on governance reform, leadership, and sustainable development in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and South Caucasus. Within the CDDRL alumni network, she is one of the co-founders of the Gender and Development Group. Olga holds a BS degree from the University of Maryland (USA) and an Executive MBA from the Solvay Business School (Belgium).

Alexander Solovyev is an Ex-Chairman of the Open Russia Movement.

He was born in 1987 and studied International Relations at the Russian State Academic University of the Humanities. Began his career as a specialist in international affairs in the Institute for the US and Canada Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he was a teacher and an analyst.

In 2013 he became assistant to Russian State Duma member Dmitry Gudkov, he assisted in lawmaking and amendment activities. Solovyev played a role in authoring bills for the return of direct elections for governors and majors, and on the abolition of food sanctions due to their incompatibility with the Russian Constitution. In 2016 Solovyev became a member of the Open Russia movement, and in April 2017 he was elected Chairman of the Open Russia Movement.

In 2019 during Moscow city parliament elections he was one of the independent candidates who managed to collect sufficient number of signatures but was still illegally rejected from being registered as a candidate. That caused mass protests in the city and all those candidates were arrested and put into jail for short terms, but simultaneously the authorities initiated dozens of criminal cases against ordinary citizens to frighten people and settle down the protests. Currently he is taking part in numerous initiatives helping to highlight the problem of political prisoners in Russia. Alexander is a federal board member of the Open Russia organization and also is in charge of the Party of Changes Moscow office (a new political party with Dmitry Gudkov as chairman).

Tamta Shermadini is the Director of PwC Georgia. Currently Tamta is leading Georgian advisory practice focusing on all the initiatives related to the Government and Public Sector (G&PS), Smart Infrastructure, and IFI / Donor funded projects. She is the Project Management Unit lead and Quality Assurance for all the Good Governance Projects implemented in the country.

In addition to the local role, Tamta is building up the G&PS practice for Eurasia region which covers 9 countries. During her almost ten-year career, she has been involved in various projects related to fund-raising, deals, feasibility studies, financial services consulting, project management and strategy consulting. Tamta holds MBA degree from the IE Business School, Madrid, Spain and BBA degree from the Free University, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Tamara Sartania is an international development professional with more than 12 years of experience in developing and managing programs with a particular focus on civil society development, parliamentary strengthening, elections and good governance systems. Currently she works as a Deputy Chief of Party for National Democratic Institute (NDI), Georgia office.

In her role, Tamara  oversees programs funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) aimed at increasing political pluralism and citizen participation in politics. In addition, she is in charge of the Institute’s election programing and has served as NDI’s Long-Term Analyst for Parliamentary Elections in Lebanon (2018) and as a Political Analyst for OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission for Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of Moldova (2019).

Prior to joining NDI, Tamara  was a Senior Project Officer at CARE International, working with women at the grassroots level in the conflict-affected regions of the South Caucasus.  She  has also worked as an international development consultant for Eurasia Foundation in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and has served in the government of Georgia for three years. Tamara  holds a Master of Arts degree in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in International Relations from Tbilisi State University. Tamara speaks fluent Georgian, English and Russian and a little bit of French. In her free time, she runs marathons, climbs mountains and travels around the world.

I have ten years of front-line diplomatic practice, serving at the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Washington, D.C. (May 2015-January 2018) and the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Office in Geneva (2008- 2012). In Geneva, I was responsible for the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Universal Periodic Review mechanism, and UN treaty bodies.

In Washington, D.C., I was a political and Congressional liaison officer covering the State Department with the human rights portfolio and the Senate. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2007, I have actively participated in bilateral and multilateral negotiations within and presentation of government reports to the UNHRC, UN treaty bodies, Council of Europe, etc. I have expertise in international human rights and humanitarian law and the U.S. political and legislative system.

I had the invaluable experience of being an OSCE short-term observer of the 2016 U.S Presidential elections. I have also three years of teaching experience at the law faculty of Baku State University on private international law, international human rights law and international organizations law theory. I earned my bachelor’s and master’s degree in international relations and international law from Baku State University, as well as a second MA from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.

Mr. Sabuhi Rzayev is a leading adviser in Department of Public and Political Issues within the President Administration Office of Azerbaijan, since 2014. Currently, He is responsible to support the activities of local and international non-governmental organizations, development donors and link their activities with related state agencies and local executive authorities.

Mr. Rzayev obtained his bachelor degree in Management from Public Administration Academy under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2005-2009. He holds an MSc degree in Public Policy and Public Administration from the University of York, UK where he studied during 2009-2011. He has also travelled to more than 40 countries of the world and participated in more than 50 international conferences, seminars, training and fellowship programs.

Before his appointment to current position, Mr. Rzayev worked in the Department of political analysis and information provision of President Administration Office in the years of 2011-2014. His main responsibilities were preparing daily report of local and international news, analyzing the content of local media and information support of the president administration, managing the official web-site and all social media accounts of the President.

Tengiz Pkhaladze is a Georgian political researcher and public opinion maker. Former advisor-foreign relations secretary to the 4th President of Georgia (2014-1018). His background covers long standing working experience in government, civil society, think-tank and academia, mainly in areas of foreign and security policy, geopolitics, Russia and post-soviet countries, Eastern Partnership, European and Euro-Atlantic integration, institutional building and democratic development.

Currently he is working as Associated Professor, head of BA programs in political sciences at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) and as Senior fellow at the International Centre for Geopolitical Studies (ICGS). Editor and co-author number of books about Russia’s foreign policy towards neighboring countries.

Giorgi Papava is a consultant of Economic Policy and Governance at Policy Management and Consulting Group (PMCG). His policy research projects have looked into a number of challenges critical to Georgia’s social and economic development, such as facilitating international trade, internationalizing Georgia’s higher education system, evaluating competitiveness of economic sectors, financing mechanisms in agricultural sector, optimizing social protection system, etc.

He has been involved in evaluation of several existing and proposed legislations, including Law on Funded Pensions, Law on Public-Private Partnerships and Law on Anti-dumping. Giorgi holds an academic position of Associate Professor of Economics at Ilia State University (ISU), where he teaches courses in Managerial Economics and Principles of Economics. He is also an invited lecturer for courses in Law and Economics and Industrial Organization at International School of Economics (ISET).

In 2012, as part of his graduate studies at the University of Chicago, he received Master of Arts Degree in Economics and is currently working on his PhD thesis, Trade Policy in the Presence of Lobbying and Heterogenously Ignorant Voters, joint with Lasha Chochua. He also has a Master of Arts Degree in Economics (2008) from ISET.a

Ms. Nizharadze is the Deputy Executive Director at International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED). She is in charge of legislative reforms and policy research.

Elene started working at ISFED in 2012 as the project coordinator and since then she has been involved in election monitoring, legislative reforms, local selfgovernment projects, awareness raising campaigns, etc. Ms. Nizharadze has a vast experience of preparing legislative recommendations and advocating for relevant amendments. She has participated in different working groups created to implement electoral, constitutional and local government reforms. Besides domestic elections Elene was also involved as a short-term observer in international election monitoring missions organized by ENEMO and OSCE.

Before starting work at ISFED Ms. Nizharadze was a legal intern at Open Society Justice Initiative (Budapest, Hungary) working on freedom of information and legal clinics. She was also a legal expert of UNDP working for the Civil Registry Agency in Georgia on the legislative reform on identification documents, registration of civil acts, etc. Ms. Nizharadze holds LLM in Comparative Constitutional Law from Central European University (Budapest, Hungary) and Master’s degree from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (Tbilisi, Georgia).