Business today, besides being free, also features representatives who can make political statements or even entering politics, writes Bidzina Ivanishvili in his letter, in which he explains his decision to leave politics.

“Let us also call to mind the dire economic situation, the manner in which all business activities were controlled in the country, how the Prosecutor’s Office and Financial Police leeched off businesses, the scale of the sense of fear, and the nature of the actual investment environment.

All larger businesses without exception were held hostage by the authorities and pushed around to provide support. Business had lost its key characteristic of being able to make decisions freely. Any more or less large transaction, let alone business deal, was subject to daily personal scrutiny from the chief prosecutor. In the same vein, the economy was just as artificial, with the GEL exchange rate being kept alive with Western financial injections designed to compensate for the lost war in 2008.

This mostly took place through a multibillion loan that is still weighing the country and its people down. Business today, however, besides being free, also features representatives who no longer shy away from making political statements or even entering politics. It was precisely the opening of public space and the media, and the essential separation of institutions and politics, that produced this tremendous democratic result”, - writes Bidzina Ivanishvili.