Georgian politics has been dull and predictable recently. The working assumption was that President Mikheil Saakashvili had successfully weathered the storm of the 2008 war, cemented the grip of his National Movement (UNM) party on power and marginalized the opposition. That meant that in the coming parliamentary and presidential elections of 2012-3 there were two main unanswered questions: first, how large a majority the UNM would get; and, secondly, whether Saakashvili would try to exploit the constitution he has specifically re-engineered by seeking to become prime minister when his current presidential term ends.
Enter the oligarch. Bidzina (also known as Boris) Ivanishvili has taken just two weeks to shake up the entire Georgian political scene.
Read Full Article »