Badri Patarkatsishvili was found dead on February 12 in his mansion in London. Condolences to his family and to all who believed in this person’s integrity.
Everyone is shocked. A 52 year old wealthiest Georgian died of sudden heart failure. At this point the investigation conducted by the Scotland Yard confirms the official version of his death. The results of toxicology examination will be published within several weeks.
Badri’s death is a huge loss for the Georgian people. It will take years before Georgia will find an investor of his caliber, let alone a person who thought in terms of using his wealth for the good of his country.
Many have said that Badri wanted to buy everything in Georgia, triple his wealth (estimated at $12 billion) and help Russian oligarchs satisfy their appetites. The same people recently started calling him his middle name, “Arkady” instead of “Badri”, in an obvious attempt to underline his “non-Georgian” background. An absolutely shameful strategy.
This person has done so much for Georgia that it would take long to list all of his deeds. He covered costs of treating the Georgian children with leukemia, he supported the Georgian Olympics sportsmen and above all, he established Imedi TV.
Imedi TV was one of the few media outlets outside the Georgian government’s control. The television channel was stormed on November 7, later re-opened and then shut down again. Why Imedi, the most popular Georgian television channel, has disappeared from the public eye is a mystery. It could have been victimized by the clash of geopolitical interests in Georgia.
Since November events, Patarkatsishvili openly confronted the Georgian authorities. He bid for presidency, but fearing for personal security, he stayed outside Georgia throughout the elections. In the meantime, based on secret recordings with a high government official Erekle Kodua, Patarkatsishvili was accused of attempting to overthrow the government.
All his assets in Georgia were frozen or confiscated. The opposition distanced themselves from him. He was slandered, marginilized and abandoned.
Sozar Subari, Public Defender, has appealed to the Prosecutor General to investigate actions of Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) against Imedi TV on November 7 2007.
It turns out that GNCC conducted monitoring of Imedi TV and concluded that airing Badri Patarkatsishvili’s statement several times added up to “encouragement of escalation of the illegal actions”. All good, only the conclusion was drawn up an hour before the channel aired Badri Patarkatsishvili’s statement for the first time.
In other words, GNCC predicted that such a statement would be aired an hour ahead of time.
Public defender explains what this means:
The falsehood on the part of employees of GNCC is evident as the inclusion of incorrect data in an official document took place. There’s a reasonable doubt that the action could be dictated by personal interests.
Easy — have a document stamped, write whatever you want and there you have it — case closed.
Imedi TV was viewed by the Georgian public as one of the few media outlets that was outside the government’s control. Even more, the TV channel slowly became the oppositions’ platform and eventually turned into the most popular television in Georgia.
In November 2007, following the dreadful breakup of the opposition led demonstration, the same day, Imedi TV was stormed by the special forces during live broadcasting. The equipment was deliberately destroyed, the journalists were harassed and broadcasting licence was suspended for airing “calls for government overthrow”.
If the argument of “calls for government overthrow” was the reason, a mere piece of paper could suffice to suspend Imedi TV, but for some reason, forceful storming scenario was given preference.
After that, wrangling over how Imedi would be let to resume its work continued for more than a month. Finally the TV was let to operate in the usual manner, but within a couple of weeks, the TV station went into self imposed exile — supposedly due to the journalists’ refusal to continue working while the owner (Badri Patarkatsishvili) was incriminated for an attempt to overthrow the government (~December 24).
During and after crucial presidential elections in Georgia (November 8 2007 - January 5 2008) Imedi TV functioned only for two weeks. It is not working to this day.
What happened?
First, a few important issues. Imedi was founded by Badri Patarkatsishvili — an influential Georgian businessman who made a fortune in Russia in the 1990s. Patarkatsishvili returned to Georgia in 2001 and was warmly greeted by then president Eduard Shevarnadze. In 2003, Shevarnadze was ousted through popular uprising.
This of course did not mean that Patarkatsishvili’s position was compromised. In fact, he financed the “Rose Revolution” and even covered the new officials’ salaries. He was also appointed as the president of Georgian Olympics and Business Federations.
Georgia’s barely-squeezed-through second term president Mikheil Saakashvili met with the Public Defender Sozar Subari. He probably hasn’t done this for the last 3 years. Many times, Saakashvili’s team blamed the Public Defender for oppositional views. In a very detailed open letter, Subari expressed his views concerning what went wrong in once “Beacon of Democracy”.
Why Saakashvili at all met with the Public Defender, can be easily explained by his opening statement: “Allow me to congratulate you on your election for the second Presidential term.”
Right now the authorities have softened considerably. There is a reason to believe that more than half of the cabinet will change. New faces will come to eradicate poverty in Georgia. In short, everything will be alright after those few bad apples are removed from the basket.
In the meantime the opposition has not accepted Saakashvili’s victory due to election violations. Although the OSCE has branded the elections as “broadly democratic”, they have also noted certain “concerns”, which they claim didn’t effect the overall result.
I have written about these violations in the past. And how they didn’t influence the 3.4% with which Saakashvili avoided the second round run-off, is still an open question to me.
In any case, Saakashvili met with the Public Defender because he liked the opening statement of his letter. The main message is however more important than congratulations. After all, Public Defender’s competence is human rights, not election observance.
It’s a bit lengthy, but very much worth understanding why all the mess has happened in Georgia over the last few months.
Sozar Subari: Open Letter to President Saakashvili (excerpts, some minor editing)
INFALLIBILITY:
There is no time for the Human Rights, (for) first we have to build the state”- this is a slogan of the governmental beau monde that declared the monopoly on infallibility and veracity. Who disagreed with this has been declared to be an enemy of the state.
The officials seriously taking part in the estimation of country’s political course openly and cynically insulted the Human Rights and, as a rule, appeared as protectors of those public servants who, in the full sense of the word, scorned the Human Rights.
Only substitution of old faces with the new ones in the Parliamentary list is not enough. What has to be improved is the attitude towards the citizens, their rights and their dignity.
CONSTRAINTS
“Everybody acknowledges that our society is being faced with the gravest situation in the field of Human Rights and, in this way, the citizens’ trust to the state is depreciating and the state consciousness is going corrupt. We have to face the truth – the recent developments and crisis in our homeland has been engendered not by the state’s adversaries’ abstract or concrete actions (though they will of course try to profit from), but by the state, when the trampling down the Human Rights by the government almost became a mode of everyday life.”
The homicides, contumelies, assault and battery, violation of ownership, demolition, bursting into and taking away property and afterwards discharging all this in TV with a cynical smile resulted in the November 2. The inexperienced public servants almost competed for an effective embittering of the people. The violence and licence became the tools for showing his/her worth in work.
It is relatively calm in Georgia, almost like before the storm. With the elections set in less then 24 hours, Georgians are gearing up to make their choice. There are several things that can happen after the elections date.
1. The outcome is a tie and two weeks later the second round is held. In this case, the period before the January 19 will be mostly a continuation of the pre-elections agitation.
2. The incumbent Saakashvili beats his rivals with over 50% of vote. If this happens, than there is a high chance that the opposition will reject the result, as according to their polls, the second round is inevitable. People “will protect their votes” by going out into the streets. Only, it seems they will not have the permission to hold rallies in Tbilisi on 6th of January, as Saakashvili’s team has booked the privilege in advance.
Why would the opposition refuse to accept Saakashvili’s victory in the first round? For number of reasons: first, those polls that claim that has such a chance, are closely affiliated with Saakashvili. One such research center is Greensberg Quinlan Rosner, which is funded by Saakashvili’s party. Of course their results put Saakashvili way ahead of his opponents.
Second, the exit polls will be planned by parties which are not acceptable to the opposition for their bias towards the authorities. Among them are state controlled televisions and Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies. While it is clear that the state controlled media is biased (why later), I am not sure if the same stands for the GFSIS and other bodies that will craft the exit polls. But. The point here is that these parties MUST be acceptable for all sides. Such could be some European based organizations, but it seems the authorities don’t find this crucial.
Third, that voters’ lists hold a million more people than during the elections four years ago, is another motivation. Four years ago there were 2.4 million voters, now there are 3.4 — it is explained by the Central Elections Committee that 1 million is those people who live outside Georgia.
If one listens to what the opposition hypotheses, than Misha has a 24% advantage if those outside Georgia are assigned to him. Can the observers note if this takes place? I am not sure how that would happen, but if certain boxes filled with ballots are sent from outside Georgia to be counted by CEC, it is easily imaginable that they could be stuffed with votes for Saakashvili.
So why is the media biased. For example, everyone knows that Saakashvili has spent millions (maybe even hundreds of millions) for campaigning. Everyone knows that dozens of hundreds of his supporters are bussed into the location where he holds his speech. Everyone knows that those in the state sector are forced to go outside and cheer for him. The television is mute over these things. Maybe a shot or two of the busses that carry Misha’s enthusiasts would more fair.
Another example — a few days ago Lavan Gachechiladze’s supporters held a rally in Tbilisi. The media mentioned this rally as the “by the way of the day” — a couple of shots of people standing purposelessly and opposition members shouting in the microphone. Looked like a fiasco that attracted a few thousand people at best. It later turned out that there were more than 30,000 people present during the demonstration.
On another occasion, the Rustavi 2 aired a program where “all the presidential candidates” were asked how they planned to spend their New Year. For some reason Badri Patarkatsishvili and Levan Gachecheladze were not included in the show.
Before the New Year, now ex-president Saakashvili was given time to address the nation — others were not. Yesterday, Saakashvili’s demonstration in Zugdidi was allocated 20-30 minutes on every major channel. On some occasions his demonstration was replayed.
Patarkatsishvili is out of the presidential race, head of his campaign will almost surely be charged with attempt to overthrow the government, Saakashvili’s PR is way better than that of the oppositions’, Imedi TV went into self-imposed exile and it seems the elections won’t be free or fair. About all this later…
Vladimir Socor, an analyst often writing on the Georgian affairs dedicated a piece to presidential hopeful Badri Patarkatsishvili (Badri Patarkatsishvili: From Russian businessman to Georgian presidential claimant.Eurasia Daily Monitor, December 21) Demonstrating a vast knowledge of Patarkatsishvili’s background, Socor says “The government’s anti-corruption policies and the new business environment in the country had severely curtailed Patarkatsishvili’s scope for doing business in his accustomed, post-Soviet 1990s-style ways.”
Therefore, Patarkatsishvili moved to clear way for his “murky” business deals by setting up an opposition party run by former allies of Aslan Abashidze. Moreover, “Patarkatsishvili has also called for dividing Georgia into ten “federal” units, which would practically dissolve the state.”
Socor moves to prove that although Patarkatsishvili is wanted in Russia, there is a reason to believe that he actually turned into Kremlin’s friend now.
It is interesting that amidst the pile of issues concerning the elections in Georgia, Socor chose to defame Patarkatsishvili. A year ago, he probably would have lauded Patarkatsishvili for his positive role in rebuilding Georgia’s robust and corruption free economy.
A few comments: first, if Patarkatsishvili wanted to make a few more billions, I am sure there are better places outside Georgia. Mostly the businesses he runs, don’t actually pump money out of Georgia, one the contrary. As for Aslan Abashidze’s former allies, the ruling party has a couple of those as well — not a successful benchmark if the point is to highlight the rogue group of people behind Patarkatsishvili.
The leader of the Georgian opposition Labor Party Shalva Natelashvili, is known for his bizarre statements. Whether it is a major conspiracy theory, loudest charges against the authorities or insane proposals, Shalva is there convincingly arguing his case. “Radical Populist” — if there is such a thing, Natelashvili would top the list.
He is currently the presidential candidate. Yesterday, he promised the population that he would abolish the taxes on gas and electricity for 3 years in case of his victory. Who will pay then?
“This will be done by those billionaire businessmen, who are now bribing Mikheil Saakashvili … But their bribe will be used instead to cover people’s gas and electricity bills,” said Natelashvili.
This could be possible in the days of inefficient and stagnating USSR, but now, in Georgia, this is inconceivable. This is plain stupid. What would anything in that direction do to the business sector? Where would you get the money in the budget to pay for peoples’ bills?
On this background, at times I am confused about whose game Natelashvili is playing. With such statements, anyone remotely familiar with the issues at hand, would call him crazy. Natelashvili = opposition, so he blunders, the opposition blunder is generalized.
Badri Patarkatsishvili must be the most controversial figure in Georgia. He has money, he partly owns the most popular television, he hopes to become president, he is wanted in Russia and possibly in Georgia.
The Georgian authorities would gladly strangle him. For them, he is the source of all their problems. Starting from publicizing the murder of Sandro Girgvliani, his television (Imedi TV) has provided critical account of the current authorities’ slip-ups or successes. Compared to the pro-government media which ride in Saakashvili’s merry-go-arounds, Imedi TV has provided a much needed sobering perspective.
So how do you fight an unbendable and problematic tycoon? Try to buy him, doesn’t work — he doesn’t want money. Oppose him, it has blowbacks. So, the outcome is to equate him with the Russian threat, oligarch lawlessness, organizing putsch etc.
Whether this strategy will work, only time will show.
Now Saakashvili’s team is even more furious: Patarkatsishvili will finance another opposition member Levan Gachechiladze’s election campaign.
“This is dirty money gotten by violence, murder and robbery and Gachechiladze is planning on using it for his election campaign” — says Givi Targamadze, a senior lawmaker from the ruling party.
The problem with this approach is that in past the authorities enjoyed Patarkatsishvili’s “dirty money gotten by violence, murder and robbery” without much hesitation. Only now it became the issue of morality. The opposition has a good answer to such allegations:
“I want to remind the public that ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili himself used to attend opening ceremonies of various facilities reconstructed or built with this [Patarkatsishvili’s] very same money,” Giorgi Khaindrava, an opposition politician affiliated with the nine-party coalition, said. “These facilities include: the Ilia Chavchavadze museum; Mtatsminda amusement park; a park and boulevard in Kobuleti; a memorial to [Georgian medieval poet] Shota Rustaveli in Jerusalem… The list goes on and on.”
According to Khandrava, former Minister in Saakashvili’s government, Patarkatsishvili used to pay with his “dirty money” the Ministers’ salaries.
Next time, it would be worthwhile to reconsider major flops, such as covering up murder, disregarding the opposition or playing deaf to peoples’ concerns. Maybe less corruption, flippancy, cynicism and PRism would help too.
Now that the elections are close, shady reports are emerging about various irregularities, such as forcing those working in the government structures to vote for Saakashvili. Imedi TV will certainly cover such issues once it is back on the air. And it is not going to be someone’s dirty money responsible for this…
The recent political turmoil in Georgia is marred with odd confrontations. An independent Imedi TV, partly owned by US media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, is closed under the pretext of “inciting government overthrow”. Badri Patarkatsishvili, the Georgian businessman and co-owner of Imedi TV, is viewed as an advocate of Russian interests — although he is no friend of Kremlin and is a wanted man there.
There is much to speculate about. Overnight Patarkatsishvili, who four years ago financed the Rose Revolution, became “enemy of the people”. He is now wanted by the Georgian authorities.
In a recent interview with Vlast, Patarkatsishvili spoke about the authorities’ plans to discredit him. He claims that there is going to be an attempt on Saakashvili’s life, after which the culprits of Chechen origin will be caught and they will confess of taking money from him.
According to another scenario, says Patarkatsishvili, some high ranking Georgian official will be assassinated and the blame will be pinned on him. He also does not exclude possible military operation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Sounds from this part of the world. Time will show.
confirms the official version of his death. The results of toxicology examination will be published within several weeks. 
loudest charges against the authorities or insane proposals, Shalva is there convincingly arguing his case. “Radical Populist” — if there is such a thing, Natelashvili would top the list. 
