Shock at Death of Georgian Tycoon

British police say death of Georgia’s richest man is suspicious.

By Mikhail Vignansky in Tbilisi (CRS No. 431 13-Feb-08)

Georgia was plunged into a state of shock and rumours abounded after the unexpected death of Badri Patarkatsishvili, the richest man in the country and one of the government’s fiercest critics,.

Patarkatsishvili, 52, died on the night of February 12-13 in his house in Leatherhead, Surrey, near London. The cause of death was apparently a heart attack, but some of his supporters alleged foul play.

“He never suffered from any serious sickness,” said Patarkatsishvili’s personal doctor Zaur Kirkitadze.

"As with all unexpected deaths it is being treated as suspicious. A post-mortem examination will be held later today to establish the cause of death," a Surrey police spokeswoman said.

Patarkatsishvili was a friend of Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and recently found himself in a similar position - in exile in Britain and identified as a key enemy of the authorities in his homeland.

Some opposition politicians in Georgia are calling for an investigation, and argue that even if the late tycoon died of natural causes, his death was brought on by what they see as persecution by the government.

“I hope that the British agencies will study carefully all the details of what happened and the public will have its questions answered,” said Georgi Targamadze, head of the Christian Democratic movement and until recently head of the news department of Patarkatsishvili’s television station, Imedi.

A supporter of Patarkatsishvili, David Shukakidze said, “The Georgian authorities handed out a death sentence to Patarkatsishvili when they began their dirty campaign against him. It’s not important whether it was a natural death or a premeditated murder. In either case, the authorities of Georgia are responsible for his death.”

Another opposition politician, former conflict resolution minister Georgi Khaindrava, claimed, “This government drove Patarkatsishvili to his death with their dirty insinuations.”

From the government camp, Georgi Bokeria of the ruling National Movement party and an adviser to President Mikheil Saakashvili, said, “On the day a person dies, it is usual practice to say something good about him or say nothing at all. So I won’t say anything.”

Patarkatsishvili was being sought by Georgia - for an alleged plot to overthrow the government - and by Russia on embezzlement charges dating back to the years when he was a close associate of Berezovsky, running the giant car firm Logovaz.

Former president Eduard Shevardnadze, who gave Patarkatsishvili refuge in Georgia when the Russian authorities were trying to extradite him, told IWPR the deceased had been an “intelligent and literate man”, and said he doubted the allegations made against him by the Georgian government.

“His death is a great loss for the country,” said Shevardnadze. “I know that Badri wanted to do a lot of good for Georgia. He did not become a millionaire or billionaire in Georgia - Georgia does not have that kind of money.

“By the way, I told President Vladimir Putin that Patarkatsishvili had received Georgian citizenship, and Putin did not object. If truth be told, he did think at first that I was talking about Berezovsky, but I said I would definitely not give Berezovsky recognition. As far as Patarkatsishvili goes, Putin did not object.”

Patarkatsishvili’s wealth was estimated at six billion dollars and companies associated with him owned some of Georgia’s prime assets, including the Borzhomi mineral water plant as well as Imedi television. He was originally close to government, but Imedi had become the mouthpiece of the opposition over the last year.

In the last four months, that confrontation became much more bitter. Patarkatsishvili financed opposition groups and said his aim was a “Georgia without Saakashvili”, After the seizure of many of his assets in Georgia, he hired former British attorney general Lord Goldsmith to travel to Tbilisi and make representations on his behalf.

Former defence minister Irakli Okruashvili alleged that Saakashvili had wanted to assassinate the businessman, and Patarkatsishvili himself told the Sunday Times that there was a plot to murder him.

“I have 120 bodyguards but I know that’s not enough,” he told the paper. “I don’t feel safe anywhere and that is why I’m particularly not going to Georgia.”

In December, when Patarkatsishvili was standing as a candidate in the presidential election campaign, the Georgian authorities released an audio-tape which allegedly contained a conversation between the oligarch and senior Georgian police official Irakli Kodua in London, with Patarkatsishvili promising to pay 100 million dollars for the elimination of interior minister Ivane Merabishvili.

Following this scandal, many Georgians dissociated themselves from him, and despite making lavish promises to spend his own money in Georgia, he came only third in the election with seven per cent of the vote.

After Saakashvili’s re-election, the government stepped up the campaign against the oligarch. His television station Imedi was again forced to shut down. On January 16, the Georgian prosecutor’s office put out a warrant for his arrest and a Tbilisi court sentenced him in absentia to two months in jail. He was also charged with plotting to overthrow the government.

Bidzina Baratashvili, the director general of Imedi, said negotiations had been nearing completion on the sale of the station to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, with the intention that the station would go back on air this March, but that it was now unclear who would carry on these talks.

The oligarch was already gearing up for the spring parliamentary elections in Georgia, but Shukakidze said Patarkatsishvili’s Our Georgia party was now considering whether it should continue operating.

Political analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze told IWPR that the oligarch’s death is not good news for his opponents in government.

“The authorities will suffer from the death of Patarkatsishvili, as the blame will fall on them to some degree for what has happened,” he said. “As for opposition forces in the country, I don’t think much will change.”

Mikhail Vignansky is Tbilisi correspondent for the Moscow newspaper Vremya Novostei.