Bidzina Ivanishvili

Bidzina Ivanishvili (ბიძინა ივანიშვილი, also known as Boris Grigoryevich Ivanishvili; born 18 February 1956) is a Georgian politician and oligarch, who served as Prime Minister of Georgia from October 2012 to November 2013.

He also graduated from the Faculty of Engineering and Economics of the Tbilisi State University in 1980, and, in 1982, went to Moscow to pursue a PhD in economics at the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering.

He founded a cooperative — the only private company allowed in the Soviet Union of the 1980s.

In 1988, Ivanishvili turned to business.

Prior to 1990, while living in Moscow, Ivanishvili met Vitaly Malkin, a Russian businessman currently into politics, with whom he formed a partnership selling computers, and later importing what was then a novelty in Russia, push-button telephones.

The fortune they made from this trade allowed them to enter the lucrative metals and banking sectors.

Metals and banking are source of Ivanishvili's great wealth.

In 1996, Ivanishvili became part of Semibankirschina, a group of influential Russian bankers who supported the re-election of Boris Yeltsin as Russian president during the 1996 Russian presidential election.

Ivanishvili sponsored the presidential campaign of Alexander Lebed in an attempt to pull votes from the Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov, who was Yeltsin's main opponent.

Ivanishvili was later criticized by his political opponents in Georgia for his support of Lebed, who was one of the leading Soviet military figures in the April 9 tragedy.

Ivanishvili maintained that he was a supporter of Boris Yeltsin who opposed the Communist candidate.

Therefore, he was indirectly supporting the independence of Georgia by opposing the return of Communists to power and restoration of the USSR.

Ivanishvili left Russia in 2002 and moved to France.

In 2003, he returned to Georgia.

Upon his return, he began giving out goods such as DVD players and stoves, as well as promising free healthcare for his town's residents.

However, at the same time, he remained elusive, preferring to remain out of the attention of the press.

Ivanishvili had provided the funds to build Tbilisi's Sameba Cathedral, the largest church in Georgia, the fact that was unknown to the general public until former President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze named Ivanishvili in his memoirs.

According to Raphaël Glucksmann, Mikheil Saakashvili's French adviser, Ivanishvili supported the Rose Revolution and financed the reforms enacted by the government afterwards.

Ivanishvili donated US$1 billion to support the government of Georgia after the Rose Revolution.

He provided funds to reform the police and build a new infrastructure in the country.

It is speculated that his support for the government after the Rose Revolution may have stemmed from his conflict with another Georgian oligarch Badri Patarkatsishvili who was in opposition to Mikheil Saakashvili.

At that time, Ivanishvili was allegedly close to Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, while Saakashvili allegedly remained more sceptical of him.

However, according to Ivanishvili, he often met Saakashvili as well.

Ivanishvili allegedly fell out with Saakashvili at the beginning of 2008.

It is speculated that with the death of Patarkatsishvili, Ivanishvili was no longer reliant on the support from the state, which allowed him to break ranks with the government.

Ivanishvili himself stated that he came under increasing pressure from the Saakashvili government and was no longer interested in providing funds for the government projects.

On 7 October 2011, Ivanishvili announced his intention to lead the opposition in the 2012 Georgian parliamentary election in a written statement, citing the perceived authoritarianism of President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili.

In the same statement, he stated he would renounce his French and Russian citizenship, as well as sell off all of his assets in Russia.

His bank Rossiysky Kredit was sold for 352 million dollars, to a group of investors comprising major Russian bankers.

His drugstore chain Doktor Stoletov was sold for 60 million dollars to the Imperia-Pharma company.

His agriculture company Stoilenskiy Niva was also sold.

Four days after declaring his intentions, Ivanishvili was stripped of his citizenship by Georgian authorities, citing article 32 of the Georgian Law on Citizenship.

As one of the richest men in Georgia, Ivanishvili entered politics in 2012, when he founded the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party and secured victory in the 2012 Georgian parliamentary election against the United National Movement party of incumbent President Mikheil Saakashvili.

His poor background would later endear him to rural Georgians and help to bring him victory in the 2012 Georgian parliamentary election.

Bidzina graduated from high school in Sachkhere.

After serving as Prime Minister of Georgia, he left all political positions in 2013 but remained to be commonly viewed as an éminence grise of Georgian politics.

After returning to politics in 2018 in a position of the chairman of the ruling party, he again left in 2021, but ultimately staged a comeback in late 2023 as the honorary chairman of Georgian Dream.

Bidzina Ivanishvili was born in the village of Chorvila, Georgia, as the youngest of five children to a poor family.

His father, Grigor Ivanishvili, worked in a manganese factory.

As a child, Bidzina was raised in extreme poverty (for example, not having access to shoes).