Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili will ask Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to return his citizenship, the businessman’s spokesman Zurab Bigvava said on Tuesday, News Georgia reports.
Ivanishvili announced his plans to form a political party for the Georgian parliamentary polls of 2012. He lost citizenship after becoming a citizen of France, according to the Georgian law.
Bigvava has not ruled out that Ivanishvili may abandon Russian citizenship. He promised to sell his assets in Russia as well, as prove of his intentions.
Georgian presidential press-speaker Manana Mandzhgaladze said on Tuesday that Ivanishvili may request the president to grant him citizenship as well as any other citizen.
The businessman received Georgian citizenship on July 22, 2004, being a Russian citizen. Georgian citizenship may be second only from the president’s permission. According to the Georgian law on citizenship, reception of any other citizenship automatically cancels the Georgian. This leaves Ivanishvili without an opportunity for formation or financing of a political party and become a candidate.
