Ivanishvili saakashvili biography

Georgian-Ukrainian politician (born 1967)

Mikheil Saakashvili (; born 21 December 1967) is a Georgian and Ukrainian politician and jurist. He was the third president of Georgia for two consecutive terms from 25 January 2004 to 17 November 2013. He is the founder and former chairman of Georgia's United National Movement party. From May 2015 until November 2016, Saakashvili was the governor of Ukraine's Odesa Oblast. After resigning, he was temporarily exiled, but returned in 2019 under a new President. Saakashvili returned to Georgia in 2021, and has been imprisoned there since then.

Saakashvili entered Georgian politics in 1995 as a member of parliament and Minister of Justice under President Eduard Shevardnadze. He then founded the opposition United National Movement party. In 2003, as a leading opposition figure, he accused the government of rigging the 2003 Georgian parliamentary election, triggering mass street protests and President Shevardnadze's ouster in the bloodless Rose Revolution. Saakashvili's key role in the protests led to his election as President in 2004. He was reelected in 2008. However, his party lost the 2012 Georgian parliamentary election. Term limits meant he could not stand again, and an opposition candidate won the 2013 presidential election.

As president, Saakashvili oversaw far-reaching reforms. His government fired and replaced the entire police force, hoping to root out corruption, and pursued a zero-tolerance policy towards crime. Its neoliberal economic policy abolished the minimum wage, and lowered corporate income tax from 20% to 15% and dividend tax from 10% to 5%. Several ministries were abolished and 60,000 civil servants dismissed, slashing government spending, although the military budget rose to 9.2% of GDP by 2007. In 2009, Forbes ranked Georgia's tax burden as the fourth lowest in the world. GDP g

He is Georgia's richest man and his followers have just ousted President Mikheil Saakashvili's ruling party from power in a shock election result, so what else do we know of Bidzina Ivanishvili?

He owns a private zoo stocked with zebras and flamingoes and has one of the world's most valuable art collections. He lives in a futuristic steel mansion, with a helipad and fake waterfall, that looks like a James Bond film-set.

But in the action-packed movie of Georgian politics, it is not yet quite clear whether Mr Ivanishvili is the hero or the baddy.

"I have come into politics to save my country," he told the BBC during an interview in his palatial Tbilisi headquarters, as he gave an impromptu tour of his $1.3bn (£800m) art collection.

He owns works by Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst - one of whose pieces he commissioned specially for a particular wall. In 2006 he bought Picasso's Dora Maar with Cat for almost $100m - at the time the highest amount paid by anyone at auction.

For the 153rd richest person on the planet, it was a bargain.

But in person he is not quite as flamboyant as all this suggests.

Softly spoken and polite, he is not what you would expect from a person who has ousted Georgia's powerful ruling party and inspired feelings of fanatical devotion and distrust in equal measure.

Before the first interview he gave the BBC in 2011, just after he had announced his political ambitions in October, he seemed nervous. And he confessed he did not know how to stand in front of the camera.

Since then, he has repeatedly said he is not interested in, nor does he fully understand, politics. And he has said on several occasions he wants to only serve as prime minister for two years before leaving politics for good.

Under agreed reforms, the parliament and prime minister will acquire greater powers than the president after that election.

With results in from 72% of polling stations, Georgian Dream led the party list vote, which accounts for 77 of the 150 seats, with 54% of the vote. The president's United National Movement was on 41%.

The rest of the seats are made up of 73 constituencies elected by a first-past-the-post vote.

President Saakashvili said it was clear that Georgian Dream had won a majority.

Earlier Mr Ivanishvili, Georgia's richest man, had already declared victory.

In his TV address, Mr Saakashvili said he would respect the Georgian people's decision, and his party would become "an opposition force".

"It's clear from the preliminary results that the opposition has the lead and it should form the government - and I as president should help them with this."

The US congratulated Georgians on the "historic milestone" of their parliamentary election and praised the president's response to the result.

In a later news briefing, Mr Ivanishvili called on Mr Saakashvili to admit he would not be able to retain power, to resign and call a snap presidential election.

The leader of the newly elected government of Georgia, Bidhzina Ivanishvili held a thirty five minute meeting with Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili at the presidential palace in Tbilisi. The two men have over the last year been engaged in a bitter political struggle in the run up to parliamentary elections held last week which saw the opposition Georgian Dream led by Ivanishvili registering a convincing victory in the poll.

The meeting between the two politicians is part of a process that sees Georgia making history by being the first country in the South Caucasus where there has been a peaceful transfer of power from one political force to another after an election. Ivanishvili is expected to be confirmed as Prime Minister next week when parliament reconvenes for the first session. Saakashvili has one more year as President, but cannot run again as he has already served for two terms.

Both Saakashvili and Ivanishvili made short statements after their meeting. Whilst there is no love lost between the two, both committed themselves to continue working within the constitutional order for the benefit of the Georgian people.

source: commonspace.eu