Bidzina Ivanishvili is a well-known political and public figure in Georgia. From 2012 to 2013 he served as Prime Minister of Georgia. Also known as a philanthropist, owner of the Unicor company. According to analysts, he takes 153rd place in the list of the richest people in the world. He has been actively involved in political activities in Georgia since 2011. According to the results of the parliamentary elections in 2012, the bloc led by the hero of our article won the majority of seats in the federal parliament.
Biography of a politician and a businessman
Bidzina Ivanishvili was born in the village of Chorvila on the territory of the Georgian SSR in 1956. His father was a miner at a plant called Chiaturmanganese.
In 1980 Bidzina Ivanishvili graduated fromFaculty of Engineering and Economics of the State University in Tbilisi. He graduated with honors. On this he decided not to stop. Two years later he entered the graduate school of the Research Institute of Labor in Moscow. On the basis of this university, Bidzina Ivanishvili became a candidate of economic sciences, defending his dissertation. After that, he worked for some time in the branch of the Research Institute of Labor, located in Tbilisi, as a senior researcher.
First Steps in Entrepreneurship
With the beginning of perestroika, doors opened for many, it became possible to freely engage in entrepreneurship, which was what the hero of our article took advantage of. His first enterprise was a cooperative for the production of reinforced hoses, which existed at the Kamo Casting and Mechanical Plant. He then traded computers and their components in Moscow and Tbilisi.
In 1990, the hero of our article founds the Russian Credit Bank. In it, he holds the post of president, is a member of the Board of Directors. From 1994 to the present, Ivanishvili has been the vice president of this commercial organization.
In the 90s, he practically did not live in Russia and Georgia, first he went to America, and then to France, where he bought real estate.
In 1995, he became the general director of the Infintrade company, established the Triada-1 company, which owns a stake in the joint-stock company Lebedinsky Mining and Processing Plant. In 1997 Ivanishviliheads the holding company Metalloinvest, which manages real estate and industrial assets. At the same time, it should be noted that the Russian Credit Bank has remained its main asset all this time.
Business in the 2000s
In the 2000s, Ivanishvili continued to actively engage in entrepreneurial activities. In particular, he becomes one of the leaders of the Stoilensky GOK open joint-stock company.
In 2002, Bidzina Grigoryevich Ivanishvili founded the Doctor Stoletov chain of pharmacies, which is still popular, and the next year he is a member of the board of directors of Impexbank.
Already after the "rose revolution" ends in Georgia in 2004, he comes to his historical homeland, where he settles in his native village. He transfers all the functions of managing his assets to Unicor. In the same period, unexpectedly for many, he sells almost all of his metallurgical assets to a group of investors led by Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov.
Property of a businessman
The real legends about the property of a businessman, because he is one of the richest people in the world. It is reliably known that at the moment he owns a stake in Impexbank, Russian Credit, the Stoilenskaya Niva agricultural company, the Doctor Stoletov pharmacy chain, the Tsentralnaya and Minsk hotels, as well as a number of other industrial assets in different regions of Russia.
Bijina's conditionIvanishvili is estimated at $5.5 billion. At the same time, the number of his assets has recently decreased somewhat. This was due to the parliamentary elections in Georgia in 2012. Before the vote, Bidzina Ivanishvili got rid of part of his property. But at the same time, he still assessed the Russian direction as a priority for his business.
Citizenship
In the 90s, remaining in Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the hero of our article received Russian citizenship. In 2004, he simultaneously obtained citizenship of Georgia.
In 2010, he also obtained French citizenship, after which, according to Georgian laws, he was deprived of the passport of this country.
In 2011, he filed a petition with a request to deprive him of Russian citizenship, two months later his voluntary petition was granted. Then he filed a lawsuit to return his citizenship of Georgia, but the process dragged on, but the decision was nevertheless made in his favor.
After the victory of his party in the parliamentary elections, he directly appealed to the President of the country, Mikheil Saakashvili, so that the issue would be promptly resolved, and so they did.
On the political front
The biography of Bidzina Ivanishvili changed dramatically when he decided to engage not only in business, but also in politics. It all started during the presidential elections in Russia in 1996, when the hero of our article supported General Lebed.
In Georgia, after the Rose Revolution, when Mikheil Saakashvili came to power, hesupported him for some time. According to his own estimates, he then spent about one billion dollars to correct the economic situation in the country.
In the fall of 2011, Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose biography is given in this article, announced that he was moving into opposition to the current government. He decides to create a party and take part in the parliamentary elections.
Already four days after this statement, he and his wife were deprived of Georgian citizenship, regarding this as a political reprisal. As a result of challenging this decision, Georgian citizenship was returned only to his wife. Ivanishvili, as a foreign citizen, had no right to either run for parliament or form a party. Therefore, it was decided that the movement "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia" founded by him would be formally headed by his wife. Formally, the party was founded in April 2012.
Campaign
Ivanishvili's election campaign was accompanied by numerous scandals. For example, in June, the court fined him $90 million for bribing voters, then cutting the amount of the pen alty exactly in half.
In July 2012, Bidzina Ivanishvili began to conduct active political activities. In particular, he publicly criticized the decision to appoint Vano Merabishvili as Prime Minister of Georgia, noting that in this way Saakashvili is trying to strengthen control over his own people.
Elections to the Georgian Parliament were held on October 1st. They won a convincing victory"Georgian Dream" Ivanishvili. Now Saakashvili's party is in opposition. Almost immediately after the announcement of the official results, he announced that none of the current ministers would retain their post. On October 8, candidates for the new Cabinet of Ministers were announced.
Ivanishvili was seen by many experts as a pro-Russian candidate. For example, anti-Russian propaganda was unprofitable for him, so he promptly closed the Russian-language TV channel PIK, which was created by Saakashvili back in 2010.
As prime minister
Already on October 25, the Georgian Parliament approved Bidzina Ivanishvili as Prime Minister of Georgia. One of his first decisions was to appoint a personal representative to establish contacts with Russia. It was Zurab Abashidze, who previously held the post of Georgia in the Russian Federation.
Assessing the activities of the hero of our article and his political supporters, many experts noted that his approval as prime minister led to a sharp decrease in Saakashvili's influence in the country. He instantly lost his majority in parliament and government. All this has made Georgian foreign policy more predictable for Russia. Experts expected that Ivanishvili would not become a supporter of a one-sided pro-American position, would not insist on the return of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to the Republic of Abkhazia.
Ivanishvili began to cancel Saakashvili's decisions, which seemed to him doubtful. For example, it was decided not to build the resort town of Lasik, the projectwhich was developed by the previous authorities. Due to the fact that the construction was carried out on centuries-old swamps, the hero of our article called it absurd and fraudulent. It was decided to create the State Security Service on the basis of the local Ministry of Internal Affairs, Already at the end of 2012, the Georgian parliament overcame the presidential veto by adopting a law on a large-scale amnesty in the country. As a result, about three thousand prisoners were released.
Already in January 2013, the new Georgian Prime Minister met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. This was the first contact at such a high level between the authorities of the two countries after the armed conflict in 2008. Ivanishvili noted that at this meeting they only got to know each other, but did not discuss Russian-Georgian relations in detail. Bidzina himself constantly said that he was trying to organize a meeting with Vladimir Putin, but before his resignation from the post of prime minister, it never took place.
In May 2013, the hero of our article announced the presidential nomination from the Georgian Dream coalition of the Minister of Education, Giorgi Margvelashvili. Already in the fall, he confidently won the elections.
The Georgian parliament approved a new prime minister in November. Irakli Garibashvili, whom Ivanishvili himself called his successor.
Politician's views
The hero of our article calls the union with Europe, as well as NATO, his main political goal. In this, his intentions coincide with those of Saakashvili. At the same time, he advocatesnormalization of relations between Russia and Georgia, since local business, Ivanishvili emphasizes, is not ready to export their goods to America and Europe. But the Russian market is simpler and more understandable. Russia is important for the development of agriculture and the economy. However, there is still no real talk about restoring diplomatic relations after 2008.
The military events of 2008 he called a great provocation, which became possible due to the leadership of the Georgian armed forces by Mikheil Saakashvili. Ivanishvili advocated the restoration of the territorial integrity of Georgia, while the discussion of the return of these territories should not affect friendly relations with Russia.
Unlike the government of Mikheil Saakashvili, which announced that it would boycott the Olympic Games in Georgia, Ivanishvili welcomed the holding of the Olympics in Sochi, saying that Georgia would definitely take part in it. At the same time, he noted that Georgia, as a direct neighbor of Russia, would take all necessary measures to ensure that the Olympics were held without any incidents.
His political platform is based on the decentralization of power, he advocates giving municipalities and regional authorities more power. Assessing the future of his associates, Ivanishvili assured that Saakashvili's supporters and adherents would not be subjected to any political persecution. But as for the legal side of the case, all suspicious projects and cases will be immediately sent to the court for consideration. All those who break the law will definitely suffer adequatepunishment, said the prime minister. For example, Ivanishvili said he intends to order a reopening of the investigation into the death of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. According to one of the conspiracy theories, Saakashvili himself could have been involved in it.
Becoming prime minister, he immediately announced that he would resign, preferring work in the civil sector. By this time, according to him, a strong and capable state system should be created in the country, which will no longer depend on one person. In the end, he kept his promise of an early resignation.
Private life
The hero of our article got married in 1991 when he was 35 years old. Bidzina Ivanishvili's wife was 19-year-old Ekaterina Khvedelidze. They had three sons and a daughter. Children of Bidzina Ivanishvili - Gvantsa, Bera, Uta and Tsotne.
After the confusing situation with the citizenship of Catherine and her husband Bidzina, it was decided that she would formally lead her husband's political movement to participate in the parliamentary elections.
There were a lot of amazing things in Ivanishvili's personal life. So, almost simultaneously with the wedding with Catherine in November 1991 in France, he married a Russian woman, Inga Pavlova, who was 19 years older than him. At the same time, Pavlova constantly lived in Moscow. It is this woman who is listed as an accountant and founder of the Moscow company Factorial, and for several years she worked in one of the banks of the hero of our article. In 1994, they officially divorced in France.
Interestingly, until 2011, Ivanishvili almost never appeared in public, did not meet with journalists, did not give interviews. Only by deciding to change the leadership of Georgia, he stepped out of the shadows, becoming in a short time one of the most popular politicians in the country.
The politician owns a variety of personal and family property. With his own money, he built a business center in Tbilisi on Mount Tabori. A project was implemented by a Japanese architect named Sina Takamutsa, who won a specially organized competition. The business center includes several conference rooms, a guest house, an indoor tennis court, and a swimming pool.
In the gardens that surround it, you can find a variety of sculptures by contemporary artists from around the world. The total cost of this complex, wholly owned by Ivanishvili, is estimated at $50 million.
