On October 1, Georgian Dream published a letter from its founder and honorary chairman, Bidzina Ivanishvili, to mark the 13th anniversary of the party’s 2012 parliamentary election victory. In the lengthy statement, Ivanishvili reflected on the party’s past, warned against internal and external threats, and called on citizens to participate in the upcoming October 4 local elections.
Ivanishvili, who formally left politics twice only to return later, remains widely regarded as the country’s shadow leader. In his letter, he described the last 13 years as a period of both achievements and challenges, but emphasized that the survival of Georgia’s statehood had never been at risk.
The most painful issue, he said, was “treacherous betrayal” from within his own ranks. “In past years there was also betrayal within our team. This not only placed Georgian Dream in crisis, but also created a real danger for the Georgian people and our country of deviating from the path of development and bringing back to power forces obedient to foreign interests,” Ivanishvili wrote. He claimed that some former party members had chosen to serve “influential foreign powers” or pursue personal comfort at the expense of Georgia’s interests, but insisted that the ruling team and society had “withstood this too.”
Turning to external threats, Ivanishvili accused opposition parties and the non-governmental sector of acting as “agents” of hostile foreign interests. “Their agents, spread abundantly in opposition parties and in the so-called NGO sector, may appear weakened at first glance. However, we must understand clearly what forces are trying to subordinate our country to their own interests,” he stated. According to him, foreign actors attempt to deceive Georgians by replacing political parties, public figures, or television channels, but he argued that “they can no longer deceive us.”
Ivanishvili also portrayed the ruling party’s record as a success in “neutralizing imposed pseudo-liberal ideology,” which he said once presented Georgia’s former government as democratic while branding the current authorities as authoritarian. “Today we no longer make mistakes in assessing who is a friend and who is an enemy,” he declared.
Although the letter frequently mentioned betrayal, agents, and external enemies, it made no direct reference to Russia. Instead, Ivanishvili stressed that Georgian Dream does not reject partnership with any country, provided it does not undermine sovereignty. “Partnership and friendship must be reciprocal,” he wrote.
The message ended with a call for voter participation in the upcoming local elections on October 4.
Georgian Dream first came to power in October 2012 after defeating the United National Movement in parliamentary elections. Since then, the party has governed the country for 13 consecutive years, with Ivanishvili maintaining decisive influence over Georgian politics despite his intermittent formal withdrawals from public office.
