Who is Bidzina Ivanishvili, the pro-Putin billionaire behind Georgia’s shock return to Russian influence?

The painting Dora Maar au chat is one of Pablo Picasso’s most spectacular depictions of his muse and longtime mistress. Only later did the identity of the enigmatic buyer emerge – he was a 50-year-old oligarch called Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose $6.4bn fortune now makes him Georgia’s richest man, his total worth equalling one-third of the country’s gross domestic product. But it is Ivanishvili’s increasing authoritarianism that could result in the pro-European Black Sea state reverting back to the repressive days of the Soviet Union, and could expand Vladimir Putin’s influence over the country. And it is this shadow of Putin that could result in Georgia becoming a proxy Russian state, well within Moscow’s sphere of influence. “Putin wants to turn Georgia into a failed state that he controls through a government that is either his puppet or sabotages Georgia’s European aspirations.” Bidzina Ivanishvili, the oligarch and former prime minister of Georgia, whose $6.4bn fortune makes him his country’s richest man Last November, the European Commission issued an official recommendation to grant candidate status to Georgia, but the foreign influence law has since put paid to the country’s chances of joining the EU.