Ivanishvili’s Georgian citizenship restored

Former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has had his Georgian citizenship restored by the Supreme Court of Georgia.

The Court upheld Ivanishvili’s appeal to grant him dual Georgian-French citizenship. According to the new Court decision, the October 11, 2011 decree to deprive Ivanishvili of his Georgian citizenship has been abolished.

Georgia’s former Prime Minister had his citizenship revoked by President Saakashvili in October 2011, two weeks after he declared he would enter politics to oppose the Government.

At the time, authorities said Ivanishvili had lost his Georgian citizenship as he was already a citizen of two other countries – France and Russia.

Ivanishvili gave up his Russian citizenship and wanted to renounce his French citizenship, but French authorities said he had to become a Georgian citizen first in order to avoid ending up stateless.

Ivanishvili tried to restore his Georgian citizenship through naturalization process but was denied on procedural grounds.

Following today’s Supreme Court decision, Ivanishvili holds dual citizenship of France and Georgia.