Bidzina Ivanishvili

Bidzina Ivanishvili (2013)

Ivanishvili's residence and office building near Tbilisi

Ivanishvili's residential and commercial complex up close

Bidzina Ivanishvili ( Georgia ბიძინა ივანიშვილი ; Russian Борис Иванишвили / Boris Ivanishvili ; *  18 February 1956 in Tschorwila at Sachkhere , Georgian SSR , Soviet Union ) is a Georgian businessman and politician . The billionaire founded a citizens' movement in December 2011, from which the Georgian opposition party Georgian Dream emerged in April 2012 . From October 25, 2012 to November 20, 2013 he was head of government of Georgia.

Life

Bidsina Ivanishvili was born in the Imereti region as the youngest of five children of a small farmer and his wife . The father worked for a time in a manganese factory. However, the family was so poor that Ivanishvili had no shoes and had to walk barefoot. He finished high school in Satschchere with very good grades and began studying engineering and economics at the State University of Tbilisi . He also worked in a steel mill. In 1982 he moved to Moscow , where he continued his economics studies at the Moscow State University of Transport .

During a part-time job as a tutor, Ivanishvili met Vitaly Malkin , with whom he founded an import company for computers, video recorders and telephones during the perestroika era. By 1990 the two partners had already earned around US $ 100,000. With the money, they founded Rossiski Kreditbank in 1990 , which initially focused on changing money. In the course of the privatization of Russian state assets, the credit bank acquired iron mines, but avoided becoming involved with the mafia or the Russian security apparatus. Ivanishvili made enormous profits in the raw materials business and soon got Russian citizenship.

In 1999 Ivanishvili's fortune was valued at $ 3.2 billion; in 2012 it had grown to an estimated $ 6.4 billion. The billionaire made a name for himself with spectacular purchases: his Unikor holding company acquired the former Hotel Lux in Moscow, which he had converted into a “luxury fashion hotel”. In the British Virgin Islands , he owns the letterbox company Lynden Management Ltd. In 2006 he acquired one of Pablo Picasso's most famous paintings , Dora Maar au Chat , for $ 95 million.

In 2003 Ivanishvili returned to Georgia. He lives with his wife and three children alternately in his place of birth, Chorwila, which benefited from many generous gifts, and in a residence with his companies' business premises in Tbilisi . The complex was designed by Japanese architect Shin Takamatsu and is valued at $ 50 million. When he assumed French citizenship in March 2010, Georgian was revoked.

Political engagement and election to prime minister

After the Rose Revolution in Georgia, Ivanishvili secretly financed President Mikheil Saakashvili's reforms . He paid for new boots for the armed forces of Georgia . The Georgian police got new vehicles from his funds. He helped raise the pay of parliamentarians and ministerial officials to immunize them from bribes. Ivanishvili's relationship with the president cooled, however, when Saakashvili used water cannons and tear gas against dissidents during mass protests in Georgia in 2007 , had the media controlled, and in 2008 the Caucasus War broke out between the Russian-backed South Ossetian and Abkhazian separatists and Georgia. Saakashvili had duped him, said the billionaire.

In October 2011, Ivanishvili announced that he would found a political party with the aim of participating in the Georgian parliamentary elections in 2012. In April 2012 he founded the Georgian Dream party alliance . It brings together various opposition parties, including the Republican Party , the Free Democrats , the National Forum , the Conservative Party and the Party for the Industrialization of Georgia . President Saakashvili then attacked Ivanishvili as a “straw man” for Moscow.

In the Georgian parliamentary elections on October 1, 2012, Ivanishvili won a landslide victory with the Georgian Dream Alliance . With 54.9 percent of the votes cast, he was well ahead of President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement , which won 40.4 percent of the vote.

In order to become prime minister, Ivanishvili gave up his French citizenship and got his Georgian citizenship back. He also parted with his business interests in Russia and his Russian passport.

On October 25, 2012, Ivanishvili was elected Prime Minister of Georgia by the parliament in Kutaisi. 88 of 150 MPs, three more than his new governing coalition has mandates, voted for him.

Documents from the offshore leaks published in April 2013 show that Bidsina Ivanishvili bought Bosherston Overseas Corp. in the British Virgin Islands tax haven . A spokesman for the prime minister said his involvement was in compliance with the law because he had no income from the company in 2012 that would have been taxable. That is why he did not have to disclose the company in the income statement (which is mandatory for Georgian government members) for the 2011/2012 period.

In November 2013, Ivanishvili resigned from the post of Prime Minister in favor of his previous Interior Minister, Irakli Gharibashvili .

On April 26, 2018, he announced that he would take over the leadership of the Georgian Dream party again.

literature

• Bidsina Iwanischwili , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 46/2012 from November 13, 2012, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible).

Web links

Commons : Bidsina Ivanishvili  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Government website: Official biography of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili (accessed April 8, 2013)
• Forbes : Bidzina Ivanishvili, March 2013 (accessed April 8, 2013)
• Foreign Policy : The Titan of Tbilisi, by Thomas de Waal, November 30, 2012 (accessed April 8, 2013)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Georgia: Parliament elects Ivanishvili as head of government at Spiegel Online , October 25, 2012 (accessed October 25, 2012).
2. ^ ^{A b} Georgia's Parliament Approves New Prime Minister - ABC News. December 3, 2013, accessed November 5, 2018 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Berliner Morgenpost: Billionaire Ivanishvili is a riddle for many compatriots , October 2, 2012
4. ↑ ^{a b} Wendell Steavenson: The Good Oligarch , Prospect Magazine, July 21, 2010
5. ^ The World's Billionaires 2009 . Forbes . March 11, 2009. Retrieved September 3, 2009.
6. ↑ Die Welt: Sex and Blood Orgies at the Center of the World Revolution , October 24, 2011
7. ↑ Traces in the state leadership. Presidents, Prime Ministers and Kings: The Panama Papers reveal how politicians in the offshore world cover up business . Southgerman newspaper. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
8. ^ Georgia: Billionaire Politician Plans Guggenheim-Style Museum For Georgia . Eurasia Review. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
9. ↑ The Legend of the Georgian Dream , Novaya Gazeta, March 11, 2019
10. ↑ Bidzina Ivanishvili's Art-Filled Fortress in Tblisi . Forbes . February 16, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
11. ↑ Matthieu Ranvier: Géorgie: mais qui est cet étrange oligarque franco-russe? . The Huffington Post . May 11, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
12. ^ Georgian Billionaire Plans Political Party . Civil Georgia . October 5, 2011. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
13. ↑ Ivanishvili's Political Party Launched . Civil Georgia . April 21, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
14. ↑ Industrialists Party Joins Ivanishvili-Led Coalition . Civil Georgia . April 11, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
15. ^ Georgian Central Election Commission: Briefing at the CEC , October 5, 2012
16. ↑ Georgian President returns Bidzina Ivanishvili's citizenship ( Memento of the original from July 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
17. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/apr/04/offshore-secrets
18. ↑ Who Uses the Offshore World - April 4, 2013 (accessed April 8, 2013)
19. ↑ Garibashvili Named as Next PM on civil.ge , November 2, 2013 (English). Retrieved November 28, 2013.
20. ^ Editing of the Fischer Weltalmanach: Fischer Weltalmanach 2019 . Fischer Verlag, 2018, ISBN 978-3-596-72019-4 , pp. 179 .