Former Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is the founder of the country’s ruling Georgian Dream party, has been sanctioned by the U.S. In a statement dated December 27, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the billionaire — whose $7.6 billion net worth exceeds a quarter of the country’s GDP — of trying to “derail Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic future for the benefit of Russia”.

Two days later, Mikheil Kavelashvili, previously a Manchester City striker, took charge as the former Soviet republic’s President, replacing pro-western Salome Zourabichvili.

Prior to the sanctions on Ivanishvili were the “disputed” elections of October 26. Defying pollsters’ predictions, the nation’s electoral authority had announced victory for the Georgian Dream, extending its 12-year grip on power since its formation in 2012. In late November, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze decided to suspend talks regarding accession plans into the EU. This spawned protests which have continued to date and even prompted then-President Zourabichvili, once a supporter of the Georgian Dream, to lock horns with the party.

At one of these protests, an effigy of Mr. Ivanishvili was burnt. For, citizens believe that though his Prime Ministership lasted just for over a year between 2012 and 2013, the billionaire continues to cast a shadow over the Georgian Dream and its policies.

Like Georgia, Mr. Ivanishvili’s past, present and future too are intertwined with those of its larger neighbour. Born in 1956 in Chorvila, western Georgia, Mr. Ivanishvili obtained a degree in engineering from Tbilisi and went on to pursue a degree in economics in Moscow. He started out in the twilight of the Soviet Union selling electronic goods, before branching out to mining and establishing his own bank, Rossiyskiy Kredit.

Ties with Moscow

Reports suggest the 68-year-old’s first brush with the Russian bureaucracy came when his brother was kidnapped back in the day. To secure his release, Mr. Ivanishvili turned to the Russian secret service.

Another report hints at his role in Semibankirschina — a group formed in 1996 to finance the re-election of then Russian President Boris Yeltsin, whose approval rating had dipped to 3%. Mr. Ivanishvili was tasked with financing the election campaign of Alexander Lebed, a candidate put in place to split the votes of communist leader Gennady Zyuganov. The group was repaid through the Yeltsin government’s auction of state-owned companies, under the loans for shares schemes. However, with Vladimir Putin’s ascension to the presidency in the 2000s began the reining in of many of these businessmen.

Mr. Ivanishvili took the political plunge when the country was disenchanted by the rule of Mikheil Saakashvili — the President who presided over the 2008 war with Russia, which saw Georgia cede 20% of its territory. Mr. Ivanishvili sparked hope in people by offering his vision of a socialist democracy in his native town of Chorvila. Separately, he built a castle for himself on a mountaintop in Tbilisi, complete with a helipad, an art gallery and a shark tank. Mr. Saakashvili is currently in jail.

Ultimately, Mr. Ivanishvili and other Georgian Dream leaders have managed to paint a picture. One in which they have drummed up anti-Western rhetoric; espoused ‘Christian values’, and homophobic and transphobic remarks; mongered a theory about a ‘Global War Party’; and cited the war in Ukraine to sell their vision of peace. The party’s vote share in Georgia’s heartland is testament to the popularity of these values.

Clashing with them is another group of Georgians who seek integration with the EU. But the West’s support for the opposition’s claims that the October elections were fraudulent and the subsequent American sanctions on Mr. Ivanishvili have further deteriorated the relations between Georgian Dream and western capitals. As Georgian Dream, undeterred by protests and pressure tactics from the West, is tightening its grip on the state, Mr. Ivanishvili remains the power behind the throne.

Supporters of Georgia’s opposition parties hold a rally to protest and dispute the result of a recent parliamentary election won by the ruling Georgian Dream party, in Tbilisi, Georgia. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Prosecutor’s Office in Georgia said Wednesday (October 30, 2024) it has launched an investigation into alleged vote rigging in last weekend’s parliamentary election, which officials said was won by the ruling party and the opposition denounced as illegitimate.

The Opposition immediately raised objections that the Prosecutor’s Office would not conduct an independent investigation because its head was appointed by parliament, which is dominated by the Georgian Dream ruling party.

Georgian Dream, which has deepened the country’s ties with Russia, declared victory in Saturday’s election after authorities said it won about 54% of the vote with almost all ballots counted. The balloting was seen by many Georgians as a choice between continuing to support the ruling party or seeking closer integration with the European Union.

Also Read: Georgia’s president urges the West to back protests of governing party that claimed election win

European observers said the election took place in a “divisive” environment marked by intimidation and instances of vote-buying, double voting and physical violence. Georgian observers also reported multiple violations and said the results do not reflect “the will of the Georgian people.”

The United States and the EU have called for a full and transparent investigation of the alleged violations.

Thousands of people rallied outside the parliament building Monday night to hear Opposition speakers, including President Salome Zourabichvili, denounce what they called a stolen election.

The nation of 3.7 million people, which lies between Russia and Turkey, was granted the status of an EU candidate in 2022, but Brussels halted the process indefinitely after the parliament, dominated by Georgian Dream, adopted a “foreign influence law,” similar to ones enacted in Russia to crack down on dissent.

The party was set up by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia and served briefly as Georgia’s prime minister but has stayed out of public view since 2013.

The investigation was requested by the Central Election Commission, and Ms. Zourabichvili was summoned for questioning Thursday about the allegations; others “who may possess information related to the alleged criminal act” also would be questioned, the Prosecutor’s Office said.

However, Ms. Zourabichvili said she would not obey the summons, telling a briefing that “the investigative body should have found the evidence itself.”

Election officials also have announced a partial recount of ballots cast at a number of polling stations, aimed at addressing some of the accusations. It wasn’t immediately clear when that will be completed, with a CEC statement saying ballots from five polling stations randomly selected in each election district will be recounted.

But Salome Samadashvili of the Opposition Strong Georgia coalition questioned whether the Prosecutor’s office was independent of Ivanishvili’s influence.

“If somebody thinks that they can fool the Georgian people or our international partners into believing that Bidzina will investigate his own election fraud, they are mistaken. Nobody can be fooled,” Ms. Samadashvili said.

“That is why we are saying that the investigation should be conducted by an international mission with the adequate mandate and qualifications. Until this is done, this election cannot and will not have legitimacy or trust,” she added.

Ms. Zourabichvili, who has a mostly ceremonial role as President, suggested that “Russian elections” were held in the country, and said “technology was used to whitewash counterfeiting. Such a thing has never happened before.”

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, a member of Georgian Dream, urged Ms. Zourabichvili to turn over evidence of vote-rigging and concluded that she has none.

“Whether it’s Salome Zourabichvili or anyone else, if they have any evidence, they should submit it to the Prosecutor’s Office and the relevant authorities instead of making baseless oral statements about events that never happened. This is their responsibility,” he said.

“However, I am certain that, since she has no facts, she won’t dare to go to the Prosecutor’s Office or provide them with any information regarding the accusations she is making verbally,” Mr. Kobakhidze said.

Tbilisi:

When Georgia’s richest man first burst into politics 12 years ago, he vowed to “astonish Europe” with the democracy he would bring to the Black Sea nation.

But Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of Tbilisi’s ruling party, has done what many critics say is the opposite: led the country into international isolation while curbing the power of his political opponents.

This month, the European Parliament called for sanctions against the powerful tycoon, accusing him of “undermining democracy” with the aim of pulling Georgia away from the West towards Russia’s orbit.

As the Caucasus nation gears up for crunch parliamentary elections Saturday, all eyes will be on what the reclusive 68-year-old oligarch does if his Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012, wins again.

‘Absolute power’

Born into poverty in the village of Chorvila in western Georgia, Ivanishvili made his fortune in Russia during the cutthroat 1990s, amassing huge wealth as state-owned Soviet assets were privatised.

He is now worth $4.9 billion, according to Forbes magazine — just under a sixth of Georgia’s GDP — and holds dual Georgian and French citizenship.

In 2012, he became Georgia’s prime minister after founding his own political party, serving for just over a year before officially retiring from politics.

In 2023, he returned to become Georgian Dream’s honorary chairman, assuming the role of a kingmaker who nominates prime ministers from among his loyal lieutenants.

After initially pursuing a liberal pro-Western agenda, his party has over the last two years intensified its anti-Western and anti-liberal positions.

Under his de-facto rule, Georgian Dream has “managed to gradually capture all branches of power and independent institutions in the country,” the Georgian branch of the Transparency International rights group said in May.

“The arrangement allows Ivanishvili to have near absolute power without any formal accountability,” it added.

He maintains control by placing close associates, such as personal bodyguards, ex-CEOs of his companies, personal assistants and family doctors in charge of state institutions, “with law enforcement and security services being the key”, it said.

Modern art, sharks, baobabs

“He thinks of the country as his personal property, as a private corporation,” said political analyst Gia Khukhashvili, Ivanishvili’s former adviser and one-time close confidant.

The billionaire is “detached from reality” and surrounded by a small circle of “sycophantic favourites”, he added.

Giorgi Bachiashvili, the former head of Ivanishvili’s Co-Investment Fund who used to be the tycoon’s right-hand man, called him a “power-drunk criminal” who “is trading away the future of our country.”

Ivanishvili has also faced accusations of having ties with Russia, a charge his party has rejected.

In addition to property and land in Georgia worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Ivanishvili owns luxury real estate in New York and Paris through a complex web of offshore companies and trusts.

His Georgian Co-Investment Fund is registered in Luxembourg and operates 25 projects in Georgia, including shopping malls, cement factories, and luxury hotels.

He is also the founder of a charity fund that has failed to publish financial reports for the last four years and faced accusations of vote-buying.

Now sporting a splash of grey in his neatly coiffed hair, Ivanishvili lives in a lavish glass-and-steel mansion overlooking the capital Tbilisi, where he keeps a priceless collection of contemporary paintings.

Among his possessions is a private zoo with exotic animals, a huge aquarium with sharks and a collection of giant baobab trees transported from Africa by boat in a journey that cost millions of dollars.

‘Global war party’

In recent weeks, Ivanishvili has attracted ridicule on social media for appearing at campaign rallies inside a bulletproof glass booth and for canned applause being played at his speeches.

He says his party is seeking to win a supermajority in the new parliament to enable a constitutional ban on pro-Western opposition parties.

His campaign has focused on a conspiracy theory about a mysterious “global war party” that controls Western institutions and seeks to drag Georgia into the Russia-Ukraine war.

Opposition parties, he said, “are trying to seize power by opening a second front (against Russia) in Georgia” with the help of their foreign partners.

“On October 26, we must once again save the country and choose between slavery and freedom, submission to foreign powers and sovereignty, war and peace,” he told a campaign rally in the Black Sea city of Batumi.

In spring, Georgian Dream lawmakers passed a Russian-style “foreign influence” law that targeted civil society and sparked weeks of unprecedented street protests, prompting Brussels to halt Tbilisi’s European Union integration process.

Recent opinion polls suggest that four leading opposition alliances are poised to garner enough votes to form a coalition government in the upcoming ballot.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)