Georgia - December 2023

Billionaire and former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili announced his formal return to politics as ”honorary chairman” of the ruling Georgian Dream party on 30 December. Ivanishvili founded Georgian Dream in 2012 and served as prime minister before his first retirement from political life in 2013, before returning from 2018 to 2021 as party chairman. Analysts and opposition parties say Ivanishvili has remained the most powerful person and prime decisionmaker in the country throughout this time, and the European Union’s condition of “deoligarichization” for Georgia’s membership is widely interpreted to refer to an end of Ivanishvili’s personal unofficial political control. The analyst Gia Khukhashvili argued that Ivanishvili’s return to an official political position is an attempt to technically circumvent this requirement, avoid any international sanctions for behind-the-scenes political activities, and perpetuate his unofficial control over the country’s government.

Sources: Eurasianet, Reuters