Tbilisi, the return of the oligarch

The billionaire Bidzina Ivanišvili after three years of absence from politics has announced that he will directly take over the reins of the 'Georgian Dream', the pro-Russian party he founded that governs the country. He claims he wants to 'unite Georgia' with a view to joining the European Union in 2030.

Tbilisi (AsiaNews) - The pro-Putin billionaire Bidzina Ivanišvili, who the opposition often calls the "shadow monarch" of Georgia, has declared his willingness to once again lead the Georgian Dream party he founded, which has governed the country since 2012, accepting the title of honorary president after three years of absence from active politics.

At the party congress he explained that the reasons for his return are due to the "geopolitical situation" that has been created in the Caucasus region, and to avoid the "risks of corruption and internal conflict" in the ruling party itself.

Ivanišvili also underlined that he has no intention of occupying the positions of prime minister or party president, but of pursuing the main aim of "uniting Georgia" in view of entry into the European Union scheduled for 2030, when the development the country's economy, according to his forecasts, "will be able to align itself with that of the European states".

In his speech at the congress, the oligarch-founder complained that the opposition in Georgia is "too weak, they are not able to exercise the function of controlling power". The opponents in reality do not accept these judgments of the "monarch": the representative of the imprisoned ex-president Mikhail Saakashvili, MP Sofia Džaparidze, commented on Ivanišvili's return to politics as dictated by the "fear of defeat" of his party in the parliamentary elections next October.

Similar statements were also released by the president of the "National Movement", Saakashvili's party, Levan Khabeišvili, according to whom after the elections "Ivanišvili will be forced to return to his beloved Russia".

The leaders of the ruling party instead welcomed their founding father's decision with enthusiasm. As Prime Minister Iraklij Garibašvili declared to the press, Ivanišvili's aim is to "save Georgia" as he "saved it in 2012", leading the Georgian Dream to victory in the parliamentary elections of that time.

The Prime Minister observed that "if the system of criminal power led by Saakashvili had remained at the helm of the country then, today we would be in conditions of permanent war with Russia, which would lead to the definitive ruin of Georgia". According to Ivanišvili's own estimates, the party should easily obtain over 60% of the vote in October, despite the "fake statistics" spread by the opposition.

The pro-Russian oligarch is currently under Western sanctions, but he assured journalists that "everything is fine, I don't miss anything." The comments of Georgia's political observers, however, express a certain skepticism regarding the "return of the king", as stated by one of the most authoritative, Gia Nodia: "It is certainly an unexpected move, which everyone thinks is due to the internal problems of the ruling party, which are evidently more serious than previously thought."

It is not clear in reality what the role of the "honorary president" will actually be, even if his influence on government policy was already "unlimited", assures Nodia, regardless of the official title attributed to him: "It is clear that he has some plans to be implemented, even if for now it is difficult to say what they are... Bidzina likes to play on the public's favor, it is his form of political humour".

Even the relationship with the opposition remains to be verified, according to the political scientist: "If he says that they are too weak, it means that he also has some concerns about them, and he must try to keep them under control." The new year could really prove decisive for Georgia, and the big players "are putting their cards on the table".

• Georgia
• politics
• Georgian Dream
• Bidzina Ivanišvili