Irakli Shalamberidze

Irakli Shalamberidze is an intern in SIPRI’s Major Initiatives team, supporting the preparation and delivery of the annual Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development. 

Prior to joining SIPRI, he worked as a Research Assistant on the Politics of Grievance and Democratic Governance (PLEDGE) research project, where he analysed speeches by Members of the European Parliament and national political leaders, with a focus on European Union climate and energy policy and the war in Ukraine. 

Shalamberidze previously interned at the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in Kyiv, where he supported the organization and delivery of the 2025 YES Annual Meeting, ‘How to End the War’. In this role, he worked closely with the Finnish and United States embassies and served as main point of contact for high-level speakers, including Finnish President Alexander Stubb, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former US General David Petraeus. 

Shalamberidze has also worked as a Swedish language tutor in Helsinki, where he introduced Ukrainian refugees to Finnish culture, society, the political system and workplace practices. He supported students in their integration into Finnish society and in facilitating their entry into the Finnish labour market, particularly within the healthcare sector.