A man as mysterious as his fortune is immense, Bidzina Ivanishvili is today accused by a large part of the Georgian population of wanting to bring the country closer to Russia. This ex-oligarch, who rules Georgia from his villa, now adopts rhetoric close to that of the Kremlin.
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Georgia, a country of 3.7 million inhabitants in the heart of the Caucasus, wedged between Russia and Turkey is currently experiencing the largest demonstrations in its history. For two weeks, opponents of power have taken to the streets almost daily to protest against the law on transparency of foreign influence. This text now requires any NGO or media receiving more than 20% of its funding from abroad to register as an “organization pursuing the interests of a foreign power” and to submit to administrative control. .
Critics have dubbed it “Russian law,” due to its similarity to legislation that has allowed the Kremlin to suppress opposition.
At the heart of the demonstrations in Tbilisi, a name often comes up in the slogans. Bidzina Ivanishvili. He was the country’s prime minister between 2012 and 2013. Today he no longer really has any official functions, other than honorary president of the “Georgian Dream” party in power. But in reality, it is he who runs the country from his sumptuous villa on the heights of Tbilisi, a palace of ice and metal, straight out of an episode of James Bond. A shark aquarium sits just behind the owner’s office. Bidzina Ivanishvili is immensely rich. His fortune is estimated at 5.5 billion euros, which is more than the Georgian state budget.
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“He started doing business and got rich in the 90s in Russia, says Eka Gagauri, director of Transparency International in Georgia, where he had connections with criminal organizations. He said he sold all his assets in Russia, but he lied: he still has companies in Russia. And in his close circle there is a man who was sanctioned by the United States for having collaborated with the Russian security services.”
Having made his fortune, Bidzina Ivanshvili, who had Russian nationality at the time, entered politics in his country of origin where he created the Georgian Dream party. Following his victory in the 2012 legislative elections, which initiated the fall of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, Westerners have long seen him as a leader who could be approached. Bidzina Ivanishvili obtained French nationality in 2010, and he was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 2021.
“When he created this great party, he did not stop being a Russian oligarch, sighs Giorgi Badrize, former ambassador to London and current research director at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic Studies. Those who chose to indulge in the illusion, that you could collaborate with Ivanishvili by banking on the fact that he has real democratic and pro-Western values… It was an illusion from the start! My only mystery about Ivanishvili is how paranoid he really is.”
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The “paranoia” mentioned by this former diplomat was expressed in broad daylight during rare public interventions by the billionaire. On April 29, in front of her supporters, Bidzina Ivanchvili gave the impression of signaling the end of the European dream of many Georgians, while the country is officially a candidate for integration into the EU. “Despite promises made at the Bucharest summit in 2008, Georgia and Ukraine were not allowed to join NATO and left out, he insisted. All these decisions are the work of the Global War Party which has considerable influence over NATO and the European Union and which sees Ukraine and Georgia only as cannon fodder.”
Who was he trying to designate by evoking this mysterious “global war party”? For its opponents, it is the West. One of the few members of his majority authorized to speak to foreign journalists, Nikolos Samkharadze, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, is trying to tone it down. “By ‘world war party’, no one means a particular country, explains this majority MP. This is a network of people trying to undermine security in our region. People, organizations who have an interest in there being a war…” But who are they?, we then ask him. His only response will be : “I can’t of course give you the names of these people and we don’t know how they are interconnected.”
A speech reminiscent of the one given in Moscow. There is no shortage of points of resemblance between the two regimes. In addition to the law on foreign influence, the Georgian authorities are preparing another on “LGBT propaganda”, as in Russia. And the Orthodox Church, which arouses a lot of distrust in part of the population because it was infiltrated by the KGB during the USSR, also brings its share to power by stoking fears.
During a demonstration organized by the church, “Family Day” in the streets of Tbilisi, a demonstrator confided to us: “We must integrate Europe, but with dignity, with our religion and our traditions. Certain European representatives, deputies who came made us understand that to integrate, we will have to adopt homosexual marriage. this man grimaced, before adding: “However, we are not persecuting anyone. But the problem is propaganda, and they finance this propaganda.”
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A speech which seemed, again, largely inspired by Moscow. The EU does not, however, require its member states to adopt gay marriage, but this belief seems well anchored in the most conservative segment of the population, where Georgian Dream recruits a good part of its electorate. Bidzina Ivanishvili never speaks publicly about Russia. A subject probably too delicate to approach head-on. Russia has occupied 20% of the territory since the 2008 war. Many Georgians openly hate the Russian regime. But the country’s real leader seems to be okay with his rhetoric and his strategy.