Ivanishvili pens vitriolic, conspiracy-laden letter on anniversary of Georgian Dream taking power

Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili has again lashed out against perceived enemies in a public letter commemorating the 13th anniversary of the party taking power. Ivanishvili also warned of potential threats from the political opposition, arguing that the upcoming municipal elections on Saturday are an opportunity to consolidate the achievements of the past 13 years.

Georgian Dream defeated former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) party in 2012 and has retained power since then. Following the elections, Ivanishvili served as prime minister for less than a year before resigning, although he is widely regarded as remaining the power behind the throne for the past 13 years.

In Wednesday’s letter, Ivanishvili began by describing the anniversary as ‘a key watershed between, on the one hand, authoritarianism, submission to foreign interests, fear and terror, and, on the other, democracy, loyalty to national sovereignty and freedom’.

He thanked the Georgian people for bringing Georgian Dream to power, saying that they are ‘faithful to the teachings, traditions, and Christian values ​​of our ancestors, and […] have never surrendered to internal or external enemies!’.

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While acknowledging that there have been some mistakes on Georgian Dream’s part over the past 13 years, Ivanishvili highlighted the ‘tangible results’ the party has achieved, claiming that Georgian Dream ‘is the only power that has maintained lasting peace, and there is not a field that has not fundamentally improved since 2012’.

Ivanishvili said that the ‘main obstacles’ on the path towards ‘greater prosperity, wealth, and economic stability’, as well as ‘true independence and solid sovereignty’, are the ‘forces of radicalism, confrontation, and artificial discord’, alluding to the domestic opposition. He further warned that those forces are ‘fighting against their own people and country’ and ‘trying to return us to the past, to stagnation, and to subservience to foreign interests’.

Without naming anyone in particular, Ivanishvili accused former members of his ‘own team’ of ‘blatant betrayal’.

‘In the past, many members of our team decided that subservience to influential foreign forces, or taking care of personal comfort at the expense of harming the interests of our citizens, could bring them great benefits’.

However, he claimed that ‘we have exposed all traitors and forced our internal enemies to admit that their actions are based not on national but on foreign interests’, but added that ‘pressure and blackmail’ have since taken ‘different forms’.

Ivanishvili then moved on to discussing the municipal elections on Saturday, which the majority of opposition parties have said they would boycott.

‘On 4 October we have a chance to show everyone again that our struggle today is about going to the polls and making a free choice, and about preserving peace and stability’.

‘Today we can finally peacefully confirm the peaceful victory obtained in 2012, turn radicalism and confrontation into yesterday, and then fight for more development and welfare, for finally overcoming poverty, for strengthening sovereignty and for peacefully uniting the country’, he concluded.

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