In Tbilisi, oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili is emulating Vladimir Putin with his Georgian Dream Party.

Ivanishvili's latest act of Putinism came last Thursday when Georgian Dream rejected a bill that would have brought full proportional representation to Georgia. Georgian Dream, which controls the Georgian government, had pledged to approve that bill in the run-up to 2020 parliamentary elections. This betrayal signals another step back from common Georgian aspirations for a more democratic, prosperous, and pro-Western future.

And it's clear that Ivanishvili has crossed a new boundary line this time. Following the failed vote, in breach of commitments made by Georgian Dream earlier this year, a number of the party's members of parliament resigned. Their number included Georgian Dream's Vice Chairman Tamar Chugoshvili, who wrote to the Washington Examiner just two weeks ago to reject my criticism of Ivanishvili's rule.

Chugoshvili and thousands of Georgians, now battling water cannons, have been forced to recognize the truth. Whatever his public relations-sculpted Wikipedia page and expensive American propagandists like Chartwell Strategy Group claim, Ivanishvili has no interest in Georgia's better future. Instead, the wannabe James Bond villain (Ivanishvili's home has a shark aquarium) aims to ensure that a few elites come before the people.

Having made his billions by capturing Russian industries left behind by the Soviet Union's collapse, Ivanishvili is a truly Putinesque oligarch. And while he played a careful game pretending to value Western links during his original rise to power, the Ivanishvili of today is a proud Putin lackey. He now spends his time killing off European and American investment projects and offering absurd shows of deference to the Kremlin. Ivanishvili showed his true colors and sparked mass protests by allowing a Russian ultra-nationalist politician to sit in the Parliament speaker's chair earlier this summer. And under his thumb, Georgia is tolerating increasing Russian aggression.

But with the totality of Georgia's opposition parties now opposing Ivanishvili's betrayal of proportionate representation, and Georgian Dream losing key lawmakers, perhaps the kleptocrat has met his match. Let us hope that the Georgian people triumph over this wannabe Putin.