[2] The confrontation between pro- and anti-Gamsakhurdia factions quickly degenerated into a series of strikes and armed clashes, and eventually, Kitovani, joined by Gamsakhurdia's former Prime Minister Tengiz Sigua and the paramilitary leader Jaba Ioseliani, launched a violent coup in December 1991.

Ioseliani, as well as Gamsakhurdia's supporters and some independent observers, claimed that Kitovani hired some Soviet/Russian troops stationed in Tbilisi to join the attack on the government.

Gamsakhurdia was forced into exile on 6 January 1992, and the coup leaders invited the former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze to head the post-coup provisional government – the State Council – in March 1992.

[4] The first and most obvious of such actions were taken by Kitovani during a planned military operation against Gamsakhurdia's supporters who had formed pockets of armed resistance in western Georgia and had taken Georgian government officials hostage.

On the night of 13 August 1992, Kitovani's force entered the autonomous republic of Abkhazia, whose leadership had taken a series of steps towards secession from Georgia, in order to establish control over the region's railways sabotaged by Gamsakhurdia's loyal militias.

[7][8] Kitovani however blamed Shevardnadze for preventing him from following up an offensive on Sukhumi with an attack on the Abkhaz stronghold in Gudauta, home to a Russian military base which supplied the secessionist forces with instructors and munitions.

[12] In the aftermath of the elections, Shevardnadze attempted to replace him as Minister of Defence with a professional soldier, General Anatoli Kamkamidze but was unable to do so.

[16] After the pro-Gamsakhurdia rebellion had been quashed with Russian aid by December 1993, Shevardnadze was able to increasingly consolidate his power and deprive both Kitovani and Ioseliani of influence over national security policy.

[23] Georgian Prosecutor-General Nugzar Gabrichidze claimed that Kitovani had been in close contact with National Guard veterans who staged a failed mutiny on 23 March 2003.