Georgia: Eccentric Billionaire Seeks Helm of Former Soviet State

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has admitted his party has lost Georgia’s parliamentary election, marking what could be the first democratic transfer of power in Georgia’s post-Soviet history.

The BBC’sNatalia Antelava says Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s opposition coalition captured the imagination of Georgians.

And the tycoon’s money didn’t hurt either.

“He’s an immensely wealthy man, who has basically has been writing checks left and right,” Antelava says. “The region where he’s from, the entire place, he basically pays the gas and electricity bills.”

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Marco Werman: I am Marco Werman; this is The World. It could be a first for the nation of Georgia – a peaceful democratic transfer of power, something it hasn’t had in its post-Soviet history. Today, President Mikheil Saakashvili conceded defeat for his party in parliamentary elections. That means his opponent Bidzina Ivanishvili now has the right to become Prime Minister. So, a democratic but divided government, perhaps. The BBC’s Natalia Antelava is in Tbilisi the Georgian capital. She says Ivanishvili captured voters’ imagination.

Natalia Antelava: He’s an immensely wealthy man who has basically been writing checks left and right. Someone was telling me today how well people in his coalition are currently paid. But he has also managed to have an army of lobbyists, I mean a huge army of lobbyists in Washington, in Europe as well. The village where he is from, that whole region where he’s from, the entire place, he basically pays the gas and the electricity bill for everyone who lives there. The hospitals are free, and so on. So, this is why so many people think that he is the man who will come and apply that same model to the rest of Georgia, basically lift the rest of Georgia out of poverty.

Werman: Now, speaking of money, you’re looking right now where you are in Tbilisi far into the hills at the mansion of Bidzina Ivanishvili. What does that look like? Give us a sense of his wealth.

Antelava: It is one of the most bizarre buildings. It overlooks the city. It actually looks a bit like a spaceship – a metal and glass structure with helicopter pads all over it. It’s all lit up right now and it’s completely out of proportion. Some people say that his wealth is completely out of proportion with a country as small and as poor as Georgia – $6 billion. That’s Georgia’s entire state budget and that’s how wealthy he is. For years and years, he lived a most reclusive lifestyle; never seen in public. He would be the philanthropist behind the Opera House in Tbilisi and various charities and so on, but had nothing to do with politics until last year he announced that he was going into politics and here we are today with Bidzina Ivanishvili in power.

Werman: So, what does that mean for Georgia’s current government, the one that swept to power in the peaceful Rose Revolution nine years ago? Is it a good thing to have an oligarch with the Xanadu in the sky as Prime Minister?

Antelava: Well, I think that depends who you ask. I think there are plenty of people who voted for him who will say that it’s an excellent thing and it’s time for a change. For many people who voted for the government see it as a disaster because the campaign, the run-up…I don’t know if you can hear it but there’s still celebrations…

Werman: Yeah, I was gonna ask you what’s all that hubbub?

Antelava: That’s right. That’s the celebrations. That’s Bidzina Ivanishvili’s supporters celebrating the victory in the streets. But there are plenty of people here who are very concerned about what will happen to the incredible progress that Georgia has made in the last 10 years.

Werman: What are their concerns? What are their big worries?

Antelava: The biggest worry I think is that this is going to turn into an ugly revenge government where the new ministers… Mr. Ivanishvili has already said that no existing minister will be allowed to stay in his post, so the whole government, the whole cabinet will be formed by them. That means that Georgia’s current, young, 30-something, English-speaking, ministers who have been helping along the Saakashvili agenda to get Georgia closer to NATO and so on, they will be gone. The good thing is that they will be gone into the opposition and for 10 years, since Saakashvili’s arrival to power, Georgia’s biggest problem has been that it has not had a decent opposition. This is Georgia’s first peaceful transition of power and this is a really big deal, not just for Georgia but for the entire region which is watching very closely.

Werman: Yeah, and how big a deal is it for, say, a country like the United States which Saakashvili has been kind of allied with in the past few years?

Antelava: Georgia has been a very loyal ally, sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. This does not mean that this relationship will cease to exist. I think, right now the Ivanishvili rhetoric is quite similar to that…when it comes to foreign policy, it’s quite similar to that of Saakashvili’s government. He does say that he wants the country to join NATO and he wants to keep the pro-western…lead the country on the pro-western course, and so on.

Werman: The BBC’s Natalia Antelava in Tbilisi in Georgia, reporting on the surprising apparent shift of leadership in Georgia and the first change of leadership through an election. Natalia, thank you very much.

Antelava: Thank you.

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