Mr. Ivanishvili has always been accused by his enemies of being an agent of Moscow, though no concrete evidence for this has ever been presented, writes the author of the article, published by the Responsible Statecraft.

What is unquestionable, however, is that Mr. Ivanishvili’s immense wealth, political patronage, extensive philanthropic activities and personal prestige mean that although he was only prime minister from 2012-2013, he remains the Honorary Chairman and dominant figure in Georgian Dream.

In President Kavelashvili’s words, “He was responsible for restoring sanity to Georgian politics and refocusing Georgian policy on our real national interests…The number of people like him in Georgian history can be counted on the fingers of one hand. He is an example to the nation.”

Mr. Ivanishvili’s mixture of immense power with personal reticence and inaccessibility - very unlike the Georgian norm - were among the reasons for the growth of opposition to Georgian Dream in the Georgian political classes. What first drew the EU and NATO into this internal Georgian political battle was the role of Western-funded NGOs, which passionately support EU and NATO accession, but became increasingly linked to the opposition.

Georgia’s relative poverty, and deliberate decisions by previous governments to outsource state functions to them, have given these NGOs an unusually large role in Georgian society and as employers of the Georgian educated classes. Given that their agreements contracts with the EU and USAID generally stipulate a non-partisan role, the government had some reason to think it inappropriate that the EU should continue to fund what had in effect in many cases become openly political groups opposing the government”, - reads the article.