TBILISI. Feb 3 (Interfax-AVN) - Major General Koba Kobaladze, commander of the Georgian national guard, has submitted his resignation.
"The resignation of the national guard commander is anything but unexpected: Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, is expected to make a decision on appointing a new head of the national guard," Nino Sturua, the Georgian Defense Ministry's press-secretary, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
A source in the Ministry told Interfax-AVN that Kobaladze might be promoted to a higher post.
"Kobaladze is relatively young - he is only 34 years old, but he is so powerful and influential in the Georgian military establishment, that Georgian authorities have even ignored recommendations of western advisors that the national guard should be reorganized and considerably reduced," the source said.
According to him, Kobaladze is one of the primary candidates for the post of the Georgian defense minister: he is a perfectly trained career officer, who graduated from the Ryazan Airborne Military College and the Moscow-based General Staff Academy.