Bidzina Ivanishvili has spent much of the last decade gazing down at Tbilisi’s ancient rooftops from his glass castle, a home perched atop a hill that his critics say resembles a Bond villain’s lair.
Since his tenure as prime minister from 2012 to 2013, the secretive oligarch has largely exerted his influence from behind the scenes and is widely described by many Georgians as the country’s shadowy “puppet master”.
