Economics
Tbilisi Turmoil Threatens Billionaire’s Dream With Nightmares
- Failed electoral reform drove Georgians to streets in protest
- Ivanishvili says he’ll spend nearly $5 billion on philanthropy
Photographer: Vano Shlamov/AFP via Getty Images
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The last few months are threatening to turn into something of a political nightmare for billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili and his Georgian Dream, the party that rules this former Soviet republic.
Ensconced mainly at an estate in his ancestral village of Chorvila, about 100 miles northwest of the capital Tbilisi, Ivanishvili has been trying to quell rising discontent with what critics call his paternalistic style of rule while simultaneously easing tensions with neighboring Russia and forging closer ties to the U.S. and the European Union, as polls show most Georgians want.