The Georgia First (“Jer Sakartvelo” in Georgian) initiative, founded by Viktor Kipiani, a think tank figure and former lawyer of Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, who split with the billionaire in 2023, held a founding congress to become a political party.
At its founding congress on June 28 at the Courtyard Marriott hotel in Tbilisi, Kipiani was elected the party’s chair. It has yet to be registered by the Public Registry.
“We do not claim to be only an opposition party. We aim for more. We want to be a political party oriented toward change,” he said. Kipiani also chairs the analytical organization Geocase.
Georgia First describes its ideology as “pragmatic right” and seeks to build a “thinking state.”
The party counts several prominent public figures among its ranks, including former Georgian Public Broadcaster anchor Vasil Ivanov-Chikovani, diplomat Valeri Chechelashvili, and former Deputy Economy Minister Nikoloz Alavidze, as well as activist Giorgi Tumasyan.
Viktor Kipiani, as a Senior Partner at MKD Law, represented Bidzina Ivanishvili’s interests as the latter reported facing troubles with his assets in the West following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Kipiani providing lengthy letters detailing Ivanishvili’s concerns. The two parted ways in March 2023, after Georgian Dream first introduced the widely contested Foreign Agents Law that sparked mass protests. Kipiani publicly criticized the bill and the ruling party, and shortly afterward, then-Georgian Dream MP Anri Okhanashvili confirmed that he no longer represented Ivanishvili.
Addressing delegates at the founding congress, Kipiani said Georgia First rejects glorification and the cult of personality, as well as condemns political revenge and retribution,” and deems it “unacceptable to distinguish between friendly and unfriendly countries in the civilized world.
“As for relations with other parties, we are open to engaging with everyone,” Kipiani further said, according to Interpressnews. “We have our own special attitude toward the [Opposition] Alliance. We believe that ‘Georgia First’ has the natural capacity to develop beyond the alliance, although this does not exclude personal communications or individual contacts.”
The congress elected the party’s political council, which includes Rusudan Tevzadze, a former member of the political council of the opposition For Georgia party, who renounced her parliament mandate in October 2025, Vakhtang Kapanadze, former Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Georgia, Valeri Chechelashvili, and GeoCase researchers Giorgi Antadze and Nikoloz Khatiashvili.
Several recently launched opposition parties have faced obstacles in securing official registration with the Public Registry, the state agency responsible for registering political parties in Georgia. Among them was Freedom Square, whose registration was rejected twice and was finally secured in November 2025, as well as the Federalists.
