Bidzina Ivanishvili The billionaire behind country's pivot to Russia

In the winding streets of Tbilisi, one is ever under his watchful gaze. From a hilltop glass mansion, likened by critics to a Bond villain's lair, Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia's wealthiest and most influential figure, has guided the country's shift away from the west over more than a decade.

- Pjotr Sauer

With his party's latest victory in the pivotal parliamentary elections on Saturday, that trajectory appears set to continue for years to come, prompting warnings from opponents that Ivanishvili plans to dismantle Georgia's fragile three-decade experiment with democracy while blocking any viable path to EU integration.

Since his short tenure as prime minister from 2012 to 2013, the secretive oligarch, whose wealth is estimated to be $7.5bn (£5.8bn) in a country whose GDP is $30bn, has largely exerted his influence from behind the scenes and is widely described by many Georgians as the country's "puppet master".

But Ivanishvili grinned widely in public on Saturday night at his party's HQ as the country's election commission announced that the ruling Georgian Dream party he founded had won 54% of the vote, a result that will secure its hold on power for another four years.

After his speech, fireworks lit up the sky, their loud bangs echoing through the city, highlighting the despair of an opposition whose hopes of forming a pro-western coalition lay in ruins.