Shevardnadze launches new party

1993 - Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze founded his own political party pulling together supporters in an attempt to consolidate his power in the turbulent former Soviet republic. He told a founding meeting that the two main goals of the Georgian Citizens’ Union would be to take back the breakaway province of Abkhazia and to promote “radical economic reforms”. Shevardnadze had previously backed away from belonging to any single political party.