Arkady "Badri" Patarkatsishvili (Georgian: ბადრი პატარკაციშვილი , 31 October 1955, Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union – 12 February 2008, Leatherhead, Surrey, United Kingdom) was a wealthy Georgian Jewish businessman, who was also extensively involved in politics. He contested the 2008 Georgian presidential election and came third with 7.1% of the votes. Although his official first name is Arkadi, most people knew him by his nickname "Badri".[1]
Patarkatsishvili was born in Tbilisi to a Jewish family. He was involved in youth politics, being a member of the Komsomol, which 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.[citation needed] 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 moved to Moscow and was named First Deputy Director.
In January 1995, Patarkatsishvili was appointed First Deputy Director General for Finance of the Russian ORT TV channel.[citation needed] 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.
n 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.
n 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.
Patarkatsishvili said that he helped Russian president Vladimir Putin to make his career.[2] He recommended Putin to Pavel Borodin, a top manager of Boris Yeltsin administration.[3] 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 (approximately 6,250,000 USD). 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.[4][5]
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.[6] On November 2, 2007, he addressed a large anti-government rally held in downtown Tbilisi and pledged to further support it.[7] 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.[8] Nevertheless, he said he would run in the January 5, 2008 snap presidential elections under the slogan "Georgia without Saakashvili is Georgia without Terror."[9] However, the leaders of major opposition parties have so far distanced themselves from any plans to nominate Patarkatsishvili as their presidential candidate.[10]
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.[11][12][13]
On December 28, 2007, Patarkatsishvili announced that he would withdraw his bid for presidency, but would nominally remain a candidate until January 4, 2008.[14] 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.[15]
nterest in sports
Patarkatsishvali was chairman of the sports team Dinamo Tbilisi. He served as president of the Georgian National Olympic Committee (GNOC), until being impeached on October 9,2007.[16]
Death
Patarkatsishvili, aged 52, collapsed and passed away at Downside Manor, his country mansion in Leatherhead, Surrey, England on 12 February 2008 at 22.45 GMT. The British police was notified of the death at 22.48 GMT by paramedics. The businessman spent the last day in the office of Debevoise and Plimpton in the City, meeting Boris Berezovsky, his business partner, and Lord Goldsmith QC, his lawyer. In addition to Berezovsky and Goldsmith, he also met fellow Russian exiles Nikolai Glushkov and Yuli Dubov [17] From the City he left for Mayfair, to visit Berezovsky's office, and at 7 pm was driven home to Leatherhead. Shortly after dining, Patarkatsishvili told his family he felt unwell and was going to bed when the heart attack struck him dead. The South East Coast Ambulance Service was immediately called, but at the time of the doctors' arrival Badri Patarkatsishvili was already dead. [1]
Preliminary reports indicated a heart attack as the cause of death.[18] Surrey Constabulary, as with any sudden and unexpected death, treated Patarkatsishvili's death as "suspicious" launching an official investigation.[19]
According to the first post-mortem tests, the death of Patarkatsishvili appeared to have been from natural cardiac-related causes. [20] Patarkatsishvili was said to have been suffering from severe heart disease and "he could have died at any time".[21] However, "a number of compounds known to be used by the former KGB can induce heart failure, but leave virtually no trace. One is sodium fluoroacetate, a fine white powder derived from pesticide." [22]
[edit]
British press coverage
London Lite was first newspaper to inform the British public of the Georgian oligarch's death on the evening of 13 February 2008. In the news of 14 February 2008, Patarkatsishvili's death was covered in The Guardian, The Times, Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent etc. Most newspapers discussed Patarkatsishvili's past business career, mentioning his close ties with the highly controversial fugeres Boris Berezovsky and Alexander Litvinenko. They also discussed Patarkatsishvili's relationships with the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili as well as with the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Patarkatsishvili's news overrode as popular stories as the assasination of Shia leader Imad Mughniyah and Princess Diana's court process. His photos featured on the frontpage of The Guardian[2], Financial Times[3] and The Daily Telegraph.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий