“The goal was to discredit the project,” said Fady Asly of the International Chamber of Commerce in Georgia. “Give me two prosecutors, 48 hours and a mandate to go back in the past 20 years and, trust me, I can put anyone in jail.”

The Anaklia port is no longer just an ambitious infrastructure project that could give Georgia a toehold in the lucrative business of international trade. It has become a test, of Georgia’s geopolitical place in the world and of its government. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the topic during a news conference with the Georgian prime minister in June. He urged that the project be completed, arguing it would “enhance Georgia’s relationship with free economies and prevent Georgia from falling prey to Russian or Chinese economic influence.”

Nominally a parliamentary democracy, Georgia has many of the trappings of a Western government, including free elections. But for years it has been firmly in the control of Mr. Ivanishvili, an introverted, yoga-practicing oligarch who was born in poverty in Georgia and who, critics say, is now primarily interested in enhancing his considerable fortune. Estimated at $5 billion, that fortune is equal to roughly one-third of Georgia’s gross domestic product.

He earned it in Russia during its free-for-all privatization era, selling push-button phones and computers, generating enough capital to form one of the country’s first private banks. Later came timely ventures into banking, real estate and metals. One investment was in a Siberian aluminum processing plant in Krasnoyarsk, a centerpiece in what came to be known as the Aluminum Wars in the 1990s. In a rare interview with Forbes, in 2012, Mr. Ivanishvili said the investment was both highly lucrative and, given the number of people killed in this economic skirmish, very scary.