Photo Gallery Georgia's Bidzina Ivanishvili
Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili has taken on President Mikheil Saakashvili by establishing an opposition movement. In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, Ivanishvili asks the West to drop its support for Saakashvili, who he claims wants to turn Georgia into a dictatorship. Here, Ivanishvili is seen at his residence in Tbilisi (October 2011 photo)
The 56-year-old businessman lives in a futuristic glass-and-steel palace high above the roofs of the Georgian capital Tbilisi. "I am the last free man in this country," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "I have money, but my most important capital is the trust of the people."
Ivanishvili poses inside his residence. Ivanishvili, who financed Mikheil Saakashvili's "Rose Revolution" in 2003, hopes to defeat the president's party in parliamentary elections this fall. Polls show his "Georgian Dream" movement, established in December 2011, having a 28 percent approval rating.
A presse conference at Ivanishvili's residence in Tbilisi. He outlined his political vision in his interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE. "We will very quickly model our institutions after Europe's, and we will free the judiciary and create independent media," he said. "After one-and-a-half or two years, I will then withdraw from politics."
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is seen at the unveiling of a monument to former US President Ronald Reagan in Tbilisi in November 2011. "I would like to ask the West to take a look at the real situation in our country and stop being fooled by Saakashvili," Ivanishvili said. "Europe and America should judge Georgia's leadership on the basis of their actions, not just their words and promises."
"I'm not afraid of prison, but there are even worse dangers," Ivanishvili told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "They're capable of anything."
