Prior he was in charge of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion deployed in South Ossetia before the war broke out.

Kapanadze graduated from the Faculty of Geography and Geology, Tbilisi State University, in 1983.

A veteran of the civil wars of the early 1990s, Kapanadze commanded a Georgian peacekeeping battalion in South Ossetia in 2004 and served as the Chief of the General Staff from August 2004 to February 2005.

He again became Chief of General Staff, succeeding Colonel Irakli Dzneladze, on 22 November 2013.

His term expired on 22 November 2016 and was succeeded by Brigadier General Vladimer Chachibaia.