Behind the eccentricity and mystique of Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili lies a story of immense political power and an increasingly fraught future for the nation. This article delves into Ivanishvili's controversial influence, his ties to Russia, and the ongoing political crisis gripping Georgia.
He seldom gives interviews. Invitations to his sprawling "castle", as some have called it, are even rarer.
"He paid for a reunion dinner for all his school classmates and there was a key for a new car under everyone's napkin," went one rumour, published in a UK magazine.But behind the eccentricity and mystique, there's something serious. It's sparked a constitutional crisis. Who the president and prime minister are now depends on who you talk to. Protests are regular, and growing. Hundreds of people have been arrested."The country is at an unprecedented crossroads," says Tinatin Japaridze, a geopolitical risk analyst at the Eurasia Group.
"We thought we'd managed to escape from the Soviet Union and that mentality, but now it doesn't look like that," says Tina Khidasheli, a former Georgian defence minister who now runs a pro-Europe think tank Civic Idea. "He has, slowly but surely, changed the entire orientation and trajectory of the country," Ms Japaridze says.Bidzina Ivanishvili makes a point to reporters outside his distinctive home in 2011.Mr Ivanishvili's time in public office may have been short-lived, but the billionaire still towers over the country, figuratively and literally.
In December, the US government sanctioned the oligarch, claiming he had eroded democracy in Georgia and enabled human rights abuses."Back then, he was very open to all opinions and when he was prime minister we had very close cooperation," she says.Riot police arrest a protester in Tbilisi last month."I was born in 89, I was born when this was part of the USSR, my generation has seen it all," he says.
"If you look at this country as a pyramid, right now, we have a Russian oligarch at the top," he says.
Georgia Politics Bidzina Ivanishvili Russian Influence Protests Democracy European Union
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