Ivanishvili Bidzina, the billionaire that divides the Georgians

Most villagers in Chorvila in the northwest of Georgia worship Ivanishvili, their most proud son who is seen as the true man of the country in power.

It is a postal settlement in the photo where the roads are good, the houses well maintained and there are many blue and yellow flags of the rulers’ Georgian dream festival.

“Our man made this whole area where you can see new houses and roads.

Ivanishvili founded Georgian Dream (GD) and the party has been in power for 12 years.

For more than four months, Georgians have climbed to the streets of the whole country to accuse the party of the Ivanishvili rigging elections last October and accusing GD of trying to keep the country away from their way to the EU and return to the sphere of influence of Russia.

GD denies him and in Chorvila you will not find anyone with a bad word to say about his billionaire son.

Ivanishvili made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, first selling computers before acquiring banks and metal assets. He returned to Georgia in 2003.

Each newly married couple in Chorvila receives a cash gift of $ 3,000 (£ 2,300) from Ivanishvili, according to Temai Kapanadze, who teaches history at the town school where Ivanishvili was as a child.

Unlike most schools in the rural areas of Georgia, it has its own pool and an inner basketball court.

“He rebuilt the hospital, he built two churches, fixed all the roads, made all the roofs throughout the region,” says Temuri.

“I personally received a refrigerator, television, a gas stove and for five years, Bidzina has been helping us by paying 200 Laris (£ 55) every month.”

Here they accuse the opposition of orchestrating the pro-EU anti-government protests and the use of young people as their “tools.”

“We also want Europe but with our traditions, and that is what the government also wants,” says Resident Giorgi Burjenidze. “We are a Christian country, and our traditions means that men must be men, and women must be women. President Trump also thinks like us.”

The opinion that Europe has been trying to impose values ​​outside of Georgian traditions, such as homosexual rights, is often repeated by state ministers and pro -government media.

They have also been derogatory of the daily protests caused by the decision of Georgia’s dream to suspend conversations with the European Union about the future membership of the country.

“Fire to The Oligarchy” has become one of the main slogans in the ongoing protests to address what people say is the overwhelming influence of Ivanishvili Ivanishvili in the country’s policy.

“Georgia is currently governed by an oligarch that has a very Russian agenda,” says Tamara Arveladze, 26, who has joined protests in the capital, Tbilisi almost every day, to fight against what he sees as the overwhelming influence of Ivanishvili.

“It has everything, all institutions and all governmental forces and resources. He sees this country as its private property, and is ruling this country as if it were their own business.”

Last month, Tamara and her boyfriend were caught in an incident that was captured on mobile phones And he went viral. They led to the protest site and shouted the words “fire to the oligarchy” when several masked policemen surrounded the car and tried to enter.

“It happened in seconds, but I felt like hours. I was surprised how aggressively they were trying to do this, if they had taken us out of the car, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Tamara’s boyfriend has revoked his driver’s license for a year and could face a prison period for cursing the police. It has received a fine of $ 3,600, a huge sum in Georgia, where the average monthly salary is closer to $ 500.

Since the disputed parliamentary election, criticized by international observers, the Georgian opposition has been boycotting the Parliament, leaving the ruling georgian dream to have any change proposed to the law.

“We are witnessing the abuse of the law,” says Tamar Oniani, director of the Human Rights Program of the Georgia Youth Association.

“First the facial masks were prohibiting, and then deployed the chambers of recognition of the face in Tbilisi. Therefore, they are made easier for them to detect who appears in the rally and then order high fines.”

Last month, the fines increased ten times for blocking the road or disobeying the police and Tamar Oniani says that in a day they only received 150 calls of protesters that had been fined.

Prime Minister Iraqli Kobakhidze has recently denounced protesters as an “amorphous mass” and thanked them sarcastically for “replenishing the state budget” with strong fines.

Tamar Oniani says that the “Judiciary is completely captured” and acts as one of the instruments against protesters, whom she, according to her, have been beaten in custody.

“They were tortured only for being part of the protest and being in favor of the European future of Georgia.”

The government denies these accusations.

Since the protests began last November, hundreds of public officials have lost their jobs after they signed requests criticizing the government’s decision to suspend conversations with the EU.

“The Government decided to clean the public sector of employees who were not loyal to them,” says Nini Lezhava, who was among them to lose their jobs.

He was in a higher position at the Georgia Parliamentary Research Center, which had had the task of providing odd reports for members of Parliament and since then has been abolished.

“They don’t need it anymore. They have their own policy and don’t want anyone with independent analytical capacity,” she says.

Nini says that a similar “cleaning” has been carried out in the Ministries of Defense and Justice, and other government institutions: “It is happening throughout the public sector of Georgia.”

“They are trying to create another Russian satellite in this region. And that goes beyond Georgia and beyond the Black Sea, beyond the South Caucasus, because we see what is happening in the world. And that is a bigger geopolitical change.”

In Chorvila, History Professor Temuri Kapanadze sees the government’s approach to Russia very differently: “There are no friends and enemies forever. Yesterday’s enemy can become a friend of today.”

Listen more about this story hereIn the BBC World Service Task