Ex-President Saakashvili: Ivanishvili’s Governance Will Be over Soon

Former President of Georgia and ex-governor of Ukraine’s Odessa, Mikheil Saakashvili, says the ruling of tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and ex-Prime Minister, "will be over soon."

Saakashvili took Facebook to criticize Ivanishvili, after it became known on Thursday that the latter is going to return to politics.

“Bidzina Ivanishvili is frightened by the overthrow of the oligarchy in Armenia and is forced to get out of the comfortable shadow of his trees and seek his personal protection in open politics again,” Saakashvili’s post reads.

Ex-president claims that Ivanishvili “is robbing Georgians” through his banks.

“We will put an end to Ivanishvili's rule and people's poverty this year," he added.

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili announced on April 26 that the GD founder is returning to politics to retake the chairmanship of the ruling party.

Georgia’s opposition claims Ivanishvili’s return directly indicates the party and the country are in crisis, as in 2015, Ivanishvili stated he would return only if there was some kind of disastrous situation in the country.

A number of political analysts believe the return of ex-pm will not change anything in the country, while others claim he will strengthen GD members and motivate the ruling team.

Ivanishvili, who is often affiliated with Russia, founded the GD coalition in 2012 which shot ahead in popularity of then ruling party United National Movement in the October parliamentary elections. In 2013, when Giorgi Margvelashvili became the president, Ivanishvili announced he had quit politics.

By Thea Morrison

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