Bidzina Ivanishvili

Bidzina Ivanishvili
ბიძინა ივანიშვილი
10th Prime Minister of Georgia
In office
25 October 2012 – 20 November 2013
PresidentMikheil Saakashvili
Giorgi Margvelashvili
Preceded byVano Merabishvili
Succeeded byIrakli Garibashvili
Chairman of Georgian Dream
In office
26 April 2018 – 11 January 2021
Preceded byGiorgi Kvirikashvili
Succeeded byIrakli Kobakhidze
In office
12 April 2012 – 15 November 2013
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byIrakli Garibashvili
Honorary Chairman of Georgian Dream
Incumbent
Assumed office
30 December 2023
Preceded byPosition established
Personal details
Born (1956-02-18) 18 February 1956 (age 68)
Chorvila, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union
(now Georgia)
Citizenship
Political partyGeorgian Dream (2012–2013, 2018–2021, 2023–)
Spouse
Ekaterine Khvedelidze
​
​
(m. 1991)​
Children4, including Bera
Alma materTbilisi State University
Moscow State University of
Railway Engineering
Awards Legion of Honour - Knight (2020)[1][2]
Net worthUS$7.27 billion (2024)[3]
Signature

Bidzina Ivanishvili (Georgian: ბიძინა ივანიშვილი, also known as Boris Grigoryevich Ivanishvili;[a] born 18 February 1956)[4] is a Georgian politician and oligarch,[5][6][7][8] who served as Prime Minister of Georgia from October 2012 to November 2013.

He is the richest man in Georgia; his wealth was estimated at $7.6 billion in 2024, a figure that in total is equivalent to 24.8% of Georgia's GDP in 2023.[9][10] He made his wealth in Russia in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union.[9] He initially sold computers in Russia before acquiring banking and metals assets for cheap when the Russian government privatized its Soviet-era state assets during Mikhail Gorbachev's and Boris Yeltsin's eras.[9] However, Ivanishvili left Russia when Vladimir Putin came to power, in 2002, and moved to France, being a French citizen.[11]

Ivanishvili entered Georgian 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. 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.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Legion2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Agenda2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "bloomberg profile: Bidzina Ivanishvili". Bloomberg. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  4. ^ Official Biography of Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, Government of Georgia (retrieved on 8 April 2013)
  5. ^ "Oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili - the real ruler of Georgia and the architect of Georgia's pro-Russian shift". Transparency International. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  6. ^ "The oligarch behind Georgia's pivot to Russia". DW. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  7. ^ Sauer, Pjotr; Walker, Shaun (16 May 2024). "Bidzina Ivanishvili: Georgia's billionaire 'puppet master' betting the house on Moscow". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  8. ^ "Georgia's Lazarus Bidzina Ivanishvili's latest political comeback and the law of diminishing returns". Meduza. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  9. ^ a b c Sauer, Pjotr; Walker, Shaun (16 May 2024). "Bidzina Ivanishvili: Georgia's billionaire 'puppet master' betting the house on Moscow". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  10. ^ "The man who bought a country". POLITICO. 24 October 2024. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
  11. ^ "He Owns The Place". The Forbes. 16 July 2012.


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