Ivanishvili was born the son of a miner in an impoverished rural village in what was then an outpost on the periphery of the Soviet Union. “I was raised almost barefoot, I didn’t have shoes to wear. But I was absolutely happy, way happier than my children are,” Ivanishvili said in 2014.
The youngest of five children, he worked sweeping the floors at a factory while studying, first for an engineering degree in the Georgian capital Tbilisi and later economics in Moscow. But by the time he graduated, academic credentials were worth little more than the paper they were printed on, with the Soviet empire limping toward its end.
From these humble beginnings, the young Georgian paved his way to unimaginable prosperity, selling electronics and ultimately founding his own bank, Rossiyskiy Kredit, headquartered in Moscow.
That came with its challenges — his rivals, and organized crime, took notice. Ivanishvili would later tell a Russian newspaper that his brother was kidnapped in an extortion plot. In response, the young tycoon turned to a different gang for protection: the Russian government, making powerful friends in the country’s new anti-organized crime taskforce — even if their methods differed little from those they were meant to be fighting.
“Its people worked for bribes and did not shy away from torture, beatings and killings,” said Irina Borogan, a leading expert in the Russian security services. But they appear to have gotten the job done for Ivanishvili, who set up shop between France and Georgia while maintaining his vast and opaque business interests in Russia.
Those with expertise in Russia in the ’90s said that, as a rule, such cooperation with the security services meant a lifelong commitment. “Once you cooperate with the government or the security services, they will never let you out of their sight,” said Borogan.