Bidzina Ivanishvili believes he 'had no choice but to enter politics', writes DANIEL McLAUGHLINin Tbilisi
GEORGIA HOLDS an election today after a bitter campaign that has divided the nation and stoked international fears of protests and even violence in the strategic Black Sea state.
The ballot pits the party of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili against a new coalition formed by Georgia’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has swapped a shadowy but hugely lucrative business career for the role of self-styled political saviour of the West’s chief ally in the Caucasus.
Until recent weeks, polls gave the ruling United National Movement a wide lead over the new Georgian Dream movement, but a scandal over abuse of prison inmates gave credence to Ivanishvili’s claim that the bright new Georgia built by his rival is rotten at heart.
After ousting the ex-communist old guard in the 2003 Rose Revolution, Saakashvili became the West’s golden boy in the Caucasus: advancer of democracy, protector of a strategic oil pipeline and moderniser of a state that was deeply mired in poverty and crime.
He helped make Georgia safer, wealthier, less corrupt and far more open to foreign investors as it strives for eventual EU and Nato membership.
Ivanishvili (56) recognises some of his rival’s early achievements – and says he paid for many of them – but claims that the US-educated Saakashvili (44) has since become a ruthless autocrat who is ruining the nation to retain power.
Ivanishvili blames him for a violent 2007 crackdown on anti-government protesters, for blundering into a losing war with Russia in 2008, for stifling critical voices in politics and media, and for spending too much on glitzy vanity projects and too little on infrastructure and job creation.
“I had no choice but to enter politics – it is not in my character, but I had no other option,” Ivanishvili told The Irish Times.
“I was the only person with sufficient trust from the people. My capital lies in that trust, not in money. What Saakashvili has done to the country is horrendous, and the people are worn out and downtrodden. I don’t want to exaggerate my role, but I was the only alternative.”
Ivanishvili’s wealth – made in 1990s Russia on a rise from small-time trader to banking magnate, and estimated at €5 billion – allowed him to fund the political machine, television stations and army of western advisers that are driving his tilt at power.
He insists that he made his fortune cleanly and has not visited Russia for a decade, countering claims from the government that he is a puppet of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Ivanishvili is physically slight and self-contained, placing him in striking contrast with the big and ebullient Saakashvili. And he speaks in quick, clipped phrases that are also very different from the colourful verbal meanderings of the president.
But the poor factory worker’s boy from the remote village of Chorvila – which he has since renovated in its entirety – has acquired some extravagant tastes.
He lives in an extraordinary glass-and-steel complex built on a ridge overlooking Tbilisi, designed by Japanese architect Shin Takamatsu in a style that could be called “sci-fi-Bond villain”.
At his holiday home beside the Black Sea he keeps peacocks, penguins, flamingos and zebras.
In London he stores an art collection that includes works by Pablo Picasso, Egon Schiele, Frida Kahlo and Damien Hirst. Ivanishvili considers it unwise to keep the originals in his homeland; since entering politics he has been stripped of his Georgian passport – he still has French citizenship – and fined tens of millions of euro for alleged campaign violations.
Georgian Dream claims dozens of its activists have been beaten and wrongly arrested recently by police and government supporters, and Ivanishvili says he even feared for his own safety.
“I have spent $1.7 billion [€1.3 billion] of my money on projects in Georgia . . . but this is my biggest contribution – to sacrifice myself and accept this risk for myself and my family.
“Thank God we have made it to the elections. I always said we would win, with or without me. Thank God I will still be here for the celebrations. There is no point putting physical pressure on me now.”
Victory would make Ivanishvili prime minister, and significant powers will be shifted to that post from the presidency when Saakashvili reaches his two-term limit next year.
Saakashvili warns that Ivanishvili will restore influence to Russia and to mafia groups in Georgia and undo the good work of the past nine years. And many people believe him.
“October 1st is a choice between the past and the future. We have never faced such a clear choice before,” the president told a final campaign rally.
“We will definitely win.”