Bidzina Ivanishvili is Georgia's richest man and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party. GD came to power in 2012. Though Ivanishvili has held no formal government office since a brief stint as prime minister in 2012-13, he is widely understood to control the party and the state. His business interests and ambitions have shaped GD's transformation from a broad coalition into a vehicle for his patronage network.
Analysts say Ivanishvili sensed that EU-mandated reforms—de-oligarchisation, the rule of law, human rights—would cost him power, prompting GD's pivot away from Europe and towards Russia and China. Critics call GD a Russian proxy; analysts say the strategy is driven not by love of Russia but by regime survival.
The consensus seemed to be that if really large numbers of men were sent to storm the mountain, then enough might survive the rocks to take the citadel. This is essentially the basis of all military thinking.