Georgia Leaders Stats

Parliament approved Mr Ivanishvili as prime minister in October 2012, after his Georgian Dream coalition's surprise win in general elections.

One of Georgia's richest men, Bidzina Ivanishvili announced in October 2011 that he was forming the coalition to challenge the eight-year rule of President Saakashvili.

Relations between the two men are not good. Mr Saakashvili's party accused Mr Ivanishvili of serving Russian interests and tried to revoke his Georgian citizenship ahead of the election. Since then Mr Saakashvili has pledged to work with the new government for his remaining year as president.

Mr Ivanishvili made his fortune in Russia, and is widely seen as more likely to try to restore relations with the powerful neighbour to the north. Critics fear that he will also be more likely to align Georgia with Russia on geopolitical and trade issues, althought the prime minister has paid lip service to President Saakashvili's aims of joining Nato and the European Union - neither of which is a realistic prospect.

Forbes magazine lists him 153rd in its 2012 list of billionaires, with an estimated wealth of $6.4bn. Georgia's annual GDP, in contrast, is $14bn. He made most of his money in Russia during the privatisation wave of the 1990s, and owns banks, chains of shops and housing projects in that country.

Georgian Dream is a highly diffuse group of parties, ranging from pro-Western liberals and nationalists to socialists and supporters of closer ties with Russia, and Mr Ivanishvili's enduring challenge will be to hold it all together.