Nogaideli became a deputy in the Parliament of Georgia in 1992, elected following the overthrow of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, and chaired the Parliamentary Committee on Environment Protection and Natural Resources during 1992–1995.

During these years, he was considered a member of a political team of young reformists headed by Zurab Zhvania and Mikheil Saakashvili and proved to be quite an effective minister.

He was sacked, in 2002, without explanation, though it appears that he had intended to resign in protest against the policies of Shevardnadze's increasingly corrupted government (as the Minister of Justice Mikheil Saakashvili did a year before).

According to Financial weekly Georgian newspaper The World Bank Group and the U.S. Agency for International Development has honored Zurab Nogaideli, Prime Minister of Georgia, as top business environment reformer of the year 2007.

In April 2007, Nogaideli underwent elective open-heart surgery at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, U.S.[2] The operation, led by leading US surgeon Dr. Charles Frazier, lasted for 8 hours and involved transplanting one mitral valve of the PM's heart.

[citation needed] After his resignation, Nogaideli said he would retire from politics and later joined the Kala Capital company – owned by the soccer star Kakha Kaladze – as its chairman.