[Chanting] HOST (VICTOR SWEZEY) Everyone's just sitting here. It’s just very half-assed. Everyone looks dejected. People are just trickling out… This is not my finest moment. I’m lying on a piece of cardboard covered by a threadbare blanket across the street from the Georgian parliament building. It's a freezing cold night in late November — 4 in the morning — and I am miserable. But this is what’s left of the protest movement here in Georgia. After the vote, the opposition parties talked a big game about pushing back against results they said were rigged. GIORGI VASHADZE We won these elections. Now we need to defend our victory, and I'm more than sure that we will win this battle. HOST Thousands of Georgians joined them in the streets. [Chanting] PROTESTOR 1 We are here to show everyone in the US and EU and in Georgia that we are not accepting the election results because it's crazy, ridiculous. [Shouting in Georgian language] HOST But each protest was more or less the same. Hours of droning speeches from the same opposition leaders. [Opposition speech in Georgian language] Lots of talk about taking back the election, and very little action. Each week, fewer and fewer people attended. PROTESTOR 1 People were really demanding some kind of plan. There was like, or we need a plan. We need a plan. We have to do something. HOST Do you think that this sort of lack of a clear plan from the opposition is hurting the movement to, I guess, you know, accuse the government of election fraud? PROTESTOR 2 I think it is harmed because, right now, a lot of people don't have hope anymore. They lost hope. And the way opposition is organizing those protests is not helping at all. HOST By the time I camp out on that piece of cardboard, it’s the last night of the protest. The new parliament will form tomorrow. And the man in charge — the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili — he sleeps in a glass castle. I’m Victor Swezey. Every antihero has their origin story. In this episode, you’ll hear Bidzina’s — how he went from a kid in a rural village in the Soviet Union to the richest man in Georgia and the master of his country’s destiny. You’re listening to “The Land in Between,” a five-part podcast about a pivotal moment in Georgia’s history, and what it tells us about the future of our world order. This is episode 3: “Takeover.” Please be aware, this episode contains graphic depictions of sexual assault and violence. We’re going to the town where that origin story begins. SANDRO GUDIASHVILI We are on our way in taxi right now, heading to there to have a meeting with the mayor of the Sachkhere. HOST I’ve brought my friend Sandro Gudiashvili on this trip as an interpreter. He’s not exactly thrilled about it. SANDRO I'm gonna be professional, as I mentioned. I don't want to meet him, but, like, we need to, you know, and get some information from their perspectives. I understand. It's not my favorite stuff that we need to do. HOST The him Sandro was referring to is the town’s mayor, Levan Ivanashvili. If you noticed his last name sounds like Bidzina’s, that’s not a coincidence. They’re all part of the same extended family, the same clan. The mayor has sent along a couple of his assistants — gruff older Georgian men in dark jackets named Ivane and Givi — to show us around in their black SUV, with tinted windows of course. Tkven, ra gkviat? [Georgian]. ASSISTANT 1 Ivane. ASSISTANT 2 Givi. HOST Viktori, sasiamovnoa. Sasianomovnoa [Georgian]. SANDRO Sandro. HOST Even through the dark tint, there’s one thing that immediately stands out about this town: Hundreds of houses line the road, each with identical red or green tiled roofs. SANDRO Red and green — I don't like that compilation. HOST It's kind of cute. SANDRO Like, yeah, separately, but like, yeah… HOST It's Christmas all year. SANDRO Exactly. HOST I’ve heard about these roofs before. They were paid for personally by Bidzina — a symbol of his selective generosity. I’m curious whether Ivane and Givi got them too. HOST Did they… did their own houses get the green and red roofs? [Ivane and Givi speaking in Georgian and laughing] SANDRO [TRANSLATING FOR IVANE AND GIVI] In the whole city, it was done by Bidzina Ivanishvili. [Ivane and Givi speaking in Georgian and laughing] SANDRO [TRANSLATING FOR IVANE AND GIVI] Thanks to Mr. Bidzina, because he did everything like gas, the water supplies, the roads, everything. HOST Bidzina rules over Sachkhere like his own personal fiefdom. And it is a legitimately pleasant town. The streets are clean and well paved. Neat stone walls line each property. It has the easy comfort of a village somewhere like the south of France, without the poverty that seems to hang over so much of the Georgian countryside. But the town looked different when Bidzina was born here, back in 1956. LEVAN IVANASHVILI [TRANSLATED FROM GEORGIAN TO ENGLISH] Sachkhere was generally not a wealthy municipality, and people had to work hard to feed themselves and make ends meet. I know that Bidzina Ivanishvili was like that too — helping with herding cattle, working with the family. HOST That’s the mayor I told you about. LEVAN IVANASHVILI [TRANSLATED FROM GEORGIAN TO ENGLISH] The main thing in him was hard work and talent, along with strong motivation to overcome hardship, get an education, and, above all, to eliminate that hardship through education. HOST Bidzina moved to Moscow as a young man in 1982, to study economics. By the time he graduated in 1986, the world around him was changing fast. Bear with me on this one — it’s all going to tie back to Bidzina. A reformer named Mikheil Gorbachev had taken the reins of the Soviet Union. NEWSREADER 1 Gorbachev brought with him a new program of reform. NEWSREADER 2 He launched his plan to modernize the system by curbing central planners and introducing a touch of capitalism. NEWSREADER 1 Reforms that he says will change the Soviet Union in profound ways: Perestroika and Glasnost. HOST Perestroika means “restructuring” — it loosened state control over industry. Glasnost means “openness” — it allowed people to talk about things that had long been forbidden. But rather than strengthening the Soviet Union, these reforms began to pull it apart. Debates — and then protests — exploded across the Communist world, including Georgia. This is the sound — from April 9, 1989 — of thousands of nationalist protesters gathering in the center of Tbilisi. [Sounds of protestors in news clip] Soviet troops attacked the crowd, killing 21 people and injuring hundreds. [Sounds of protestors screaming in news clip] For Soviet Georgia, it was the beginning of the end. [Gamsakhurdia independence speech in 1991 in Georgian language] HOST Two years after the massacre, 99.5 percent of Georgians voted to break away from the Soviet Union. For decades, they had lived under a system that took care of all their necessities: food, housing, healthcare, education, even vacations. Some of Georgia’s main exports were luxury goods — wine and holidays on the Black Sea. Even with the consumer shortages that came in the 1980s, Georgians had some of the highest living standards in the entire Soviet Union. They didn’t realize they were about to give all that up. NEWSREADER On election day in Tbilisi, Georgians still mourn the 20 demonstrators killed two years ago by Soviet troops. HOST The Cold War was over. The West was victorious. That meant the unrestrained capitalism of the 1980s would be the way forward. In the words of Gordon Gekko: “WALL STREET” FILM CLIP Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. HOST For countries like Georgia, joining the West meant attempting one of the most radical economic experiments in history: transitioning overnight from communism to a free-market economy. They had to implement a set of policies that became known as shock therapy. Government subsidies and price controls were slashed. Borders were thrown open to foreign capital. The state sold off everything it could to private owners. The results were catastrophic. Most factories closed. Inflation hit 15,000 percent. The government couldn’t deliver basic public services like electricity. The industries owned by the Soviet state ended up in the pockets of a few of incredibly wealthy people: NEWSREADER 1 Ukrainian oligarch… NEWSREADER 2 Kazakh oligarch… NEWSREADER 3 The oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili… HOST So what was Bidzina doing all that time? When the Soviet Union opened up, he started importing new technology from the West — computers. And he used the profits to found a bank. He was still in Moscow when the Soviet Union collapsed. And that’s when he went on a real shopping spree. He used the money from the bank to buy up massive holdings in the metals industry — mines producing iron ore and factories that turned that ore into steel. Bidzina eventually went back to his homeland, with very deep pockets. He cultivated the image of a generous philanthropist, donating to arts and culture and funding the construction of a cathedral that towers over Tbilisi. But his most generous gifts were reserved for his hometown. Here’s Levan Ivanashvili, the mayor, again: LEVAN IVANASHVILI [TRANSLATED FROM GEORGIAN TO ENGLISH] What I remember most clearly is this: when my neighbor wasn’t home, a large truck trailer full of flour bags — sent by Bidzina Ivanishvili — arrived. When he returned that evening and saw what had been delivered, I remember the joy on his face and how warmly he thanked me and Bidzina. That gratitude — it made a deep impression on me. HOST When we finish the interview, the mayor’s assistants take us up the hill to a medieval fortress overlooking the town. Bidzina is in the process of restoring it. Oh my God. Wow. It’s so beautiful This is the hospital that Bidzina built? SANDRO GUDIASHVILI Mhm. HOST Okay SANDRO Do you remember when I showed you this, like, hotel? [Host: Yeah, yeah] I told you? [Host: That’s the hotel?] Yeah, that is the hotel. Like students or like the personnel for the hospital who were coming here to, like, be like doctors or something, like they were staying over there. For them it was free. HOST At each stop, the assistants bring a pitcher of wine out of the car and insist on one toast after another, to the point that I start to get worried about my ability to conduct an interview — and their ability to drive. SANDRO Okay, don’t drink more, please. Yeah. HOST Finally, we arrive at an automatic metal gate, with a big house behind it. Ivane and Givi take us around the side of the building to a little cabin where pine logs are burning in a fireplace. HOST We just walked into a house. Viktori, sasiamovnoa [Georgian language]. They want to introduce me to a community leader — the hulking man waiting for us on the couch. [Host: Sit here?]. In classic Georgian fashion, he’s set a long table: nuts, cheeses, dried fruit, candied peaches. And of course, wine. I quickly find out this cabin, too, was built by Bidzina. And before I know it, everyone’s raising their glasses to the oligarch. [Toast to Bidzina] VILLAGE LEADER You'd help your friend, your relative, your neighbor, wouldn't you? He has that kind of heart. I wish there were more people with a heart like his. Free tractors, plowing. Everything. Absolutely everything. HOST It’s the same near-religious devotion I’ve heard from everyone I’ve met today. And it marks an odd contrast with the rest of the country, where Bidzina doesn’t command this kind of adoration. In fact his rise to power wasn’t really about him at all. It was more about who he wasn’t. By 2011, Bidzina saw an opportunity to move into politics. A few years after that Rose Revolution, Georgia’s then leader, Mikheil Saakashvili, was turning from a reformer into a tyrant. VILLAGE LEADER If you tried to do anything, they would arrest you. I worked as a bakery manager in this village. They arrested me, damn it. Someone else stole flour, and they told me, “You have to take the blame, whether you want to or not.” NEWSREADER 1 Georgian riot police have clashed with hundreds of protesters calling for the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili. It followed five days of demonstrations against what protesters described as Saakashvili’s iron-fisted rule. HOST And then something came out about Saakashvili that confirmed everyone’s worst fears. NEWSREADER 1 Protests in Georgia against brutality in prisons have strengthened. NEWSREADER 2 These are the graphic images that have shocked Georgia. Uniformed prison guards can be seen beating and kicking inmates, and carrying out brutal sexual assaults. One prisoner is shown being raped with a broomstick, while tied to the bars of his cell. NEWSREADER 3 In central Tbilisi, students — some carrying brooms as symbols of torture — call for the arrest of government ministers responsible. HOST The violence of these images shook the nation. But it’s important to note where they first aired. It was the TV channel Bidzina Ivanishvili had recently launched for his election campaign. NEWSREADER 4 A year ago hardly anyone knew what he looked like. HOST But now when Georgians cast their votes… NEWSREADER 4 Billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili is the next prime minister of Georgia. On Tuesday, President Saakashvili conceded he’d lost the closely fought parliamentary vote. HOST Bidzina came into office in 2012 promising Georgians that they could have it both ways. He would continue to push the country toward the EU and NATO and ease tensions with Russia. DATO PARULAVA When he came he made these promises to really boost the Georgian economy, to offer people good healthcare package, to offer them loans, to just drag them out of the poverty, to help Georgia get into the European Union. HOST This is Dato Parulava, a journalist at POLITICO who covers Georgia. He recently wrote one of the most deeply-researched profiles ever on Bidzina. It’s called “The man who bought a country.” DATO In the first few years, I think he did not raise any doubts. He managed to extend his stay at power, and many of the promises that he made still remain largely unfulfilled. HOST The government spent nearly a decade checking all the boxes to push Georgia toward Europe. Parulava says Bidzina was hedging his bets. DATO A lot of people that you speak to will tell you he's not pro-Russian, he's not pro-Western, he's just pro-himself. HOST Bidzina dipped in and out of politics — sometimes as Prime Minister, sometimes as chairman of his party, sometimes behind the scenes. DATO He is only interested in maintaining this power, and he will do anything to keep it the way it is. HOST And then something happened that convinced Bidzina not to trust the West. He got ripped off, big time. NEWSREADER 1 The former prime minister of Georgia has been suing Credit Suisse in the Caribbean. Bidzina’s personal financial advisor had been misappropriating hundreds of millions of dollars of his money. NEWSREADER 2 Bidzina Ivanishvili, a client of a rogue private banker who had fleeced a whole load of incredibly wealthy people out of their savings and funded a lavish lifestyle of Rolex watches and fast cars. HELENA BEDWELL So, he took it very, very personally, and he was really angry. I remember those words. He said, he told me that I trusted this guy, Patrice Lescaudron, because he spoke Russian. I thought he was a good guy. HOST That’s Helena Bedwell, the veteran Georgian journalist you met back in episode 1. She covered the unfolding drama as a Bloomberg correspondent. HELENA He just really wanted the whole of this bank system, that particular bank destroyed, you know. And even though he was told by his lawyers, calm down, you will win. There’s something he wanted more damage to them. I said to my colleagues, then I said, he's not gonna stop, because Bidzina won't stop until he destroys you, like completely, until you crumble. And then war in Ukraine started. And I think when war started, that's where he went completely. Basically went overboard with it. NEWSREADER 1 Russian troops are closing in on the capital. Their military vehicles have been filmed entering the city… NEWSREADER 2 But there are no signs Ukrainians are raising the white flag. [Speech in Ukrainian]. President Zelenskyy, in a pre-dawn appeal, told Ukrainians to stay strong and calm… HOST Bidzina had been walking a tightrope between Russia and the West. Now, he had to pick a side. DATO The choice that Georgian government had was, either we align ourselves with how the Western world is treating this crisis, or we do the opposite. … HOST That’s POLITICO journalist Dato Parulava again. The West wanted Georgia to put sanctions on Russia — one of its largest trading partners. And they were demanding more democratic reforms if Georgia wanted to join the EU. For Bidzina, the choice was clear. DATO And this is when, very gradually, they started to criticize Ukrainian authorities. And they really tried to exploit the situation to their benefit, in the sense that they were depicting these authorities as these warmongers who could not avoid the war. HOST A new narrative began to form. As Bidzina saw it, Ukraine had been egged on by the West and stumbled into war with Russia. He would not allow the same thing to happen to Georgia. With his vast resources and his growing power, Bidzina had singlehandedly changed Georgia’s path — away from Europe and toward Russia. And when Georgians were given the opportunity to vote on it, he put his finger on the scales. Which brings me back to the last night of the protests, on my cardboard bed, waiting for the new parliament — Bidzina’s parliament — to be sworn in. So, outside the back gate of parliament. There’s probably a couple hundred people here, would not call it a large crowd. I think there’s more people in front of parliament. It’s cloudy. It’s drizzling, I’m very tired… Everyone watches on a jumbotron, jeering and booing at each new MP. And then, suddenly, people approach the five-meter barrier blocking the building’s street entrance — and start pounding on it. [Sounds of pounding on barrier] They grab stone pavers, walking sticks — whatever’s on hand — and slam them against the metal wall. At first, I think they’re trying to do what supporters of Donald Trump did in my own country on January 6, 2021 — break into the building and stop the new government from convening. But it soon becomes clear that that’s not what’s happening. This is not an insurrection. It’s a performance of desperation — a final, futile outburst of all the anger that’s built up against Bidzina’s takeover of Georgia. [Sounds of slamming continue] HOST Next episode, that anger explodes. [Chanting “Revolutsia”] PROTESTOR 1 Right now I’m here, and I'm doing everything in my power to, like, sabotage and get everyone's attention, fucking break windows. HOST [Protestor: You’re alive.] I just got fucking tear-gassed. “The Land in Between” was produced, reported, and written by me, Victor Swezey. It’s a production of the Global Reporting Centre. Our editors were Andrea Crossan and Britney Dennison. Music by Irakli Margishvili. Translator and production assistant: Sandro Gudiashvili. Fact-checking by Sharon Nadeem. Digital support by Andrew Munroe. Credit song is Mdevari, by Skazz. Art by Mariam Katcharava. Special thanks to the Soviet Past Research Laboratory and the Fulbright Program for making this project possible.