Badri Patarkatsishvili

Badri Patarkatsishvili

Arkadi "Badri" Patarkatsishvili (Georgian: ბადრი პატარკაციშვილი, October 31, 1955, Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union – February 12, 2008, Leatherhead, Surrey, United Kingdom) was a wealthy Georgian Jewish businessman, who also had extensive involvement in politics and sport. He participated in contest in the 2008 Georgian presidential election and came third with about 7.1% of the votes.

Although his official first name is Arkadi, most people knew him by his nickname "Badri".

Early life

Patarkatsishvili was born in Tbilisi. Early involvement in the in the communist youth organisation, the Komsomol, gave him important future contacts.

Between 1994 and 2001, he lived in Moscow. Then he was forced to move to Tbilisi.

Patarkatsishvili's business activities had made him one of the richest men in Georgia. In these activities, he had been closely associated with Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky. In 1992, he became a deputy Director General of Berezovsky's LogoVAZ group. In 1994, as he had moved to Moscow, he was appointed a First Deputy Director of it.

In January 1995, Patarkatsishvili was appointed First Deputy Director General for Finance of the Russian ORT TV channel. In March – May 2001, he was the Director General of the Russian TV6 channel. Both channels were partially owned by Berezovsky.

In August 2006, Patarkatsishvili sold his 100% share of the Russian Kommersant editorial house to Alisher Usmanov.

Allegations of corruption

In June 2001, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office charged him with organizing an attempted escape from prison of Nikolay Glushkov, and in October 2002 – by default with an alleged grand fraud related to the AvtoVAZ case.

In 2007, numerous allegations of corruption were made against him. He was impeached as president of the Georgian National Olympic Committee, and also quit as a president of Georgian Business Federation. Georgian officials turned largely vocal about Patarkatsishvili's murky past. Tbilisi-based Rustavi 2 TV alleged that Patarkatsishvili's name was linked to several notorious murders in Russia and Georgia, including the assassination of Vlad Listyev.

Interest in sports

Patarkatsishvali was chairman of the sports team Dinamo Tbilisi. He had been reported to be linked to the purchase of West Ham United, an English Premier League football (soccer) team. He was also rumored to be linked to MSI (Media Sports Investment) investment group, which has a partnership with the Brazilian football club Corinthians; MSI is suspected of money laundering in Brazil.

He served as president of the Georgian National Olympic Committee (GNOC), until being impeached on October 9,2007.

Involvement in politics

Patarkatsishvili said that he helped Russian president Vladimir Putin to make his career. He recommended Putin to Pavel Borodin, a top manager of Boris Yeltsin administration . After moving to the Kremlin, Putin met Boris Berezovsky who secured his appointment as Russian FSB director, according to Patarkatsishvili.

In late 2007, he became embroiled in a major political scandal. On September 25, 2007, Irakli Okruashvili, ex-defense minister of Georgia, accused Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia, of planning the assassination of Patarkatsishvili. After his arrest on charges of corruption, however, Okruashvili retracted his accusations against the president, winning release on bail of 10 million Georgian lari. He also said that his earlier accusations levelled against Saakashvili were not true and were aimed at gaining political dividends for himself and Badri Patarkatsishvili and at discrediting the President of Georgia.

On October 29, 2007, he publicly announced his plans to finance ten opposition parties' campaign aimed at holding parliamentary elections in April, instead of late 2008. On November 2, 2007, he addressed a large anti-government rally held in downtown Tbilisi and pledged to further support it. He left Georgia for London shortly afterwards. After the demonstration turned violent on November 7, 2007, Georgia's Chief Prosecutor's Office announced that he was suspected of conspiracy to overthrow the government. Nevertheless, he said he would run in the January 5 2008 snap presidential elections under the slogan "Georgia without Saakashvili is Georgia without Terror." However, the leaders of major opposition parties have so far distanced themselves from any plans to nominate Patarkatsishvili as their presidential candidate.

On December 24 and 25, 2007, the prosecutor-general's office of Georgia released a series of audio and video recordings of the two separate meetings of the high-ranking Georgian Interior Ministry official Erekle Kodua with Patarkatsishvili and the head of his pre-election campaign Valeri Gelbakhiani. According to these materials, Patarkatsishvili was trying to bribe Kodua to take part in what the Georgian officilas described as an attempted coup d'etat on January 6, 2008, the next of the scheduled presidential elections. The plan included to stage a mass manifestation against the government and to "neutralize" the Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili. The accusations forced Patarkatsishvili onto defensive. He confirmed that he met with Kodua in London, but denied that the bribe was in connection to an alleged coup plot and claimed instead that his intention was to uncover what he said were official plans to rig the election. He also confirmed that he offered Kodua "a huge amount of money" in exchange for defecting from the authorities allegedly to avert a possible use of force by the government against the planned January rallies.

On December 28, 2007, Patarkatsishvili announced that he would withdraw his bid for presidency, but would nominally remain a candidate until January 4, 2008. On January 3, 2008, he reversed himself, however, and decided to run in presidential elections. In response, his top campaign official Giorgi Zhvania (brother of the late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania) resigned, declaring that Patarkasishvili did not have the unquestionable reputation one would expect of a country's president.

Death

Patarkatsishvili died at his home in Leatherhead, Surrey, England on February 12, 2008 at 11 pm GMT. Preliminary reports indicate that a heart attack was the cause of death. On February 13, the British police said Patarkatsishvili's death was being considered as "suspicious" and that an investigation would take place.

There are a number of versions of the causes of his death:
First version: It was a heart attack as a result of psychological pressure.

The editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta and the boss of the slain Anna Politkovskaya, Dmitry Muratov, in a talk show on Echo of Moscow radio reported the following: Badri tried to take good care of his health and recently underwent a thorough medical exam. He was full of energy. Several days ago, Muratov received the following information. Recently, Badri, living in London, was approached by Saakashvili government with a demand that he sell his controlling share in the dissident Imedi TV network. Initially, Badri refused because Imedi was his child. But Saakashvili offered Badri an unprecedented deal: to exchange ownership of Imedi for the ownership of the entire Georgian railroad system. The Georgian Railroads is not a state-owned corporation. Like most properties, appropriated by government officials in ex-USSR republics, it is registered off-shores in the Bahamas, and it is not known to whom it actually belongs. Being a busnessman, Badri couldn't resist and agreed. However, when the Saakashvili side sent him the agreement text, there was a new clause, which required Badri to invest much of his capital - $2 billion - in the "improvement" of the railroad property. He refused. It was up to the Saakashvili side to come up with a better offer, but Badri suddenly died. Muratov's source is one of the lawyers from the legal side of this deal. He says that Badri has been working very hard on this lucrative deal."

Second version: Heart attack was simulated by CIA of U.S. Patarkatsishvili wanted to depose American government of Mikheil Saakashvili. Patarkatsishvili known Putin and can be connected with Kremlin. Few specialist says that Patarkatsishvili has a plan how to disrupt American interest in Asia.
Los Angeles Times reported: "British police call the death 'suspicious.' Badri Patarkatsishvili was a bitter enemy of U.S.-backed Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili."

Third version: Government of Gergia сan be connected with his death. Patarkatsishvili was in opposition to Mikheil Saakashvili.

Fourth version: Some journalists want to blame FSB.

On the same day, the Daily Telegraph in London drew comparisons with the death of Alexander Litvinenko, and opined that "while the investigation into the death of Mr Patarkatsishvili - a sworn enemy of Russian President Vladimir Putin - remains at an early stage, even speculation that the Russia state could be involved will fan diplomatic flames". The article did not, however, present any evidence that Russia was involved.

Fifth version: Boris Berezovsky was interested in death of Patarkatsishvili. Few specialist says that few last month they have several conflicts.