Arkady Shalvovich "Badri" Patarkatsishvili (; ; 31 October 1955 – 12 February 2008) was a Georgian businessman who also became extensively involved in politics. He contested the 2008 Georgian presidential election and came third with 7.1% of the votes. From the early 1980s until the time of his death, he was a flamboyant figure in business and was behind some of the most successful companies in today's Russia.Daily Telegraph, Badri Patarkatsishvili, 14.02.2008 From humble origins, he became the wealthiest citizen in Georgia with an estimated wealth of $12 billion."The Richest Georgians of the World". Georgian Times, 04-06-2008 .Accessed: 04-05-2008. He was also one of the country's largest philanthropists.Vanity Fair, The Widow and the Oligarchs 01.10.09
Patarkatsishvili suddenly died intestate in February 2008, sparking one of the largest estate battles in legal history.Vanity Fair, The Widow and the Oligarchs, 01.10.09 In October 2018, the government of Georgia officially accused the former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili of ordering Patarkatsishvili's assassination.
Early life Born in Tbilisi to a Jewish family, Patarkatsishvili became an active member of the Komsomol, the youth wing of the Soviet Communist Party during the 1980s. He eventually became Komsomol leader at Maudi, a large textile operation.The Times, Badri Patarkatsishvili Obituary 14.02.2008
In 1984, Patarkatsishvili became Deputy Director General of Gruzavtovazprom, a company that purchased and delivered cars and spare parts from AvtoVAZ, which was at the time, the largest car manufacturer in the Soviet Union. It was during trips made to the AvtoVAZ plant that he first met Boris Berezovsky who was to become a close friend and business associate. Berezovsky v Abramovich, Fourth Witness Statement of Boris Berezovsky, 31.05.2011 In 1989, Patarkatsishvili and Berezovsky founded LogoVaz () with some of the senior executives of AvtoVAZ. LogoVaz developed software for AvtoVAZ, sold Soviet-made cars and serviced foreign cars. It was established as a joint venture with Logo Systems, an Italian company, which at the time was seen as pioneering in commercial relationships between East and West. LogoVaz established an office in Georgia and Patarkatsishvili became Deputy Director General of the company.
Move to Moscow and involvement with ORT In 1992 with support from his friend Otari Kvantriashvili, Patarkatsishvili and his family moved to the Moscow region, first to Lyubertsy in 1993 and then in 1994 to Moscow, where he quickly became part of Berezovsky's increasingly influential political circle. LogoVaz had by this time become an extremely successful company and had made Patarkatsishvili a wealthy man. At the time, the Soviet Union was collapsing and there was a great deal of political uncertainty in the region. Patarkatsishvili, along with Berezvosky and other successful businessmen were supportive of Boris Yeltsin as he had liberalised trade with foreign countries, allowing their businesses to grow, however the wider economy was performing badly and there was growing support for Nikolai Ryzhkov's reformed communist party.Boris Yeltsin Wikipedia
By 1994, Berezovsky had secured control of ORT, the largest TV station in Russia at the time, and he installed Patarkatsishvili as First Deputy General Director, in charge of financial activities. Patarkatsishvili and Berezovsky with support from Mikhail Lesin then used the station's influence to assist Boris Yeltsin to victory in the 1996 presidential election.Allison, Graham T., and Matthew Lantz. "Assessing Russia's Democratic Presidential Election." Harvard University (1996) From 1994 until mid-2000, Patarkatsishvili was a key figure at ORT.
Sibneft privatisation In 1997, he was selected to oversee the privatization of the Sibneft oil company. Sibneft was the youngest oil holding company in Russia at the time having been created hastily in early 1995 out of Rosneft. An unknown entity, Oil Finance Corporation (NFK), that had been created out of Menatep, a holding company started by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, won the auction.Privatization in Transition Economies: The Ongoing Story, Edited by Ira W. Lieberman, Daniel J. Kop, 2008 Berezovsky had an interest in the Menatep Group and for this reason, there was some speculation that the auction had been fixed. It later emerged that the company had been sold for a fraction of the market value. Badri Patarkatsishvili: From Russian businessman to Georgian presidential claimant (Part One), Vladimir Socor, Jamestown Foundation, Washington DC, 12-21-2007.Accessed 04-06-2008.
After Patarkatsishvili died, in 2012 the Sibneft privatisation was to become the subject of a high court legal battle between Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich and Berezovsky. According to The Times, Abramovich submitted a 53-page court defence that accused Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili of demanding huge sums for helping him to rise from obscurity. Patarkatsishvili emerged as the key intermediary, passing messages between Abramovich and Berezovsky. Patarkatsishvili was offered $500 million by Roman Abramovich, the defence papers that were submitted admit, for protecting Roman in Russia's aluminium wars.Berezovsky v Abramovich, Gloster J Action 2007, Folio 942
TV6 and Kommersant Following his success at ORT, in April 2001, Patarkatsishvili was appointed General Director of Russia's TV6 channel, which, like ORT, was partly owned by Berezovsky. Under his control, TV6 became notorious for its anti-Kremlin line.
In the late 1990s, Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili also purchased Kommersant the one of Russia's most influential political newspapers. In 2006, Berezovsky sold his controlling stake to Patarkatsishvili, increasing Patarkatsishvili's holding to 100%. Patarkatsishvili then organised the sale of Kommersant in August 2006 to senior Gazprom executive Alisher Usmanov. Kommersant newspaper sold out, Alliance Media, Moscow, quoting RosBusinessConsulting, 09-03-2006.Accessed: 04-05-2008. BADRI PATARKATSISHVILI: FROM RUSSIAN BUSINESSMAN TO GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL CLAIMANT (part two) The James Town Foundation, 21 December 2007.
Political trouble in Russia By mid 1999, Boris Yeltsin began losing his grip on power and Boris Berezovsky began to play an important role in the hunt for his successor. He did this in order to counter the political aspirations of the Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who was seen as more of a statist.Putin's Path to Power, Peter Rutland, (December 2000) As Berezovsky lost favour with the Kremlin, investigations began into his business affairs which Berezovsky claimed to be politically motivated. This eventually led to an arrest warrant for Berezovsky being issued in April 1999 by the Prosecutor General, Yury Skuratov.Wikipedia, Boris Berezovsky Although Patarkatsishvili had sought to distance himself from Berezovsky's political dealings his proximity to Berezovsky was such that he began to fear that he may also be arrested, so in 2000, he left Moscow for his native Georgia.
When Vladimir Putin was elected in March 2000, Patarkatsishvili hoped that the situation for Berezovsky and himself in Russia would improve. He and Berezovsky had supported Putin in his election campaign.Based on text of his taped conversation with Erekle Kodua Full text in Russian published in Kommersant Patarkatsishvili later claimed that he had recommended Putin to Pavel Borodin, then a senior member of President Boris Yeltsin's Kremlin administration.Difficulties of translation from Georgian, Kommersant, February 12, 2008 Berezovsky had also gotten Putin appointed as Russian FSB director.Boris Berezovsky Wikipedia
However, Berezovsky quickly fell out with the new president. On May 31, Berezovsky sharply attacked the constitutional reform proposed by Putin, which would give the Kremlin the right to dismiss elected governors. In an open letter to Putin published in Kommersant Berezovsky, then a Duma deputy, said that he would be obliged to vote against the president's legislative project, which was "directed toward changing the state's structure" and represented a "threat to Russia's territorial integrity and democracy.""Berezovsky's Letter Dominates News" Moscow Times Things came to a head in August 2000 when Berezovsky used ORT to attack Putin for his handling of the sinking of the Kursk submarine, blaming the death of 118 sailors on the Kremlin's reluctance to accept foreign help."Russian President Putin tries to break Berezovsky's grip" World Socialist Web Site 28 September 2000 This began to put pressure also on to Patarkatsishvili, whose association with Berezovsky was well known and was at the time, controlling the ORT station.
In December 2000, Nikolay Glushkov a co-founder of AvtoVAZ and a close associate of Patarkatsishvili and Berezovsky was arrested as part of the Russian Prosecutor General's investigation in Aeroflot, a company that Berezovsky had an interest in. Patarkatsishvili and Berezovsky believed the arrest to be politically motivated and part of the Kremlin's attempt to put pressure on their businesses. Glushkov suffered from a hereditary blood disease and had to receive special medical treatment in hospital. Patarkatsishvili and Berezovsky began negotiations with the Government for his release agreeing to give up their media interests and for Berezovsky to end his political ambitions.Kommersant "Я бы отдал все, если бы отпустили Глушкова" Badri Patarkatsishvili Interview, Kommersant "I'd give anything to see Glushkov released" 4.7.2001 However, in June 2001, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office charged Patarkatsishvili with organizing an attempted escape from prison of Glushkov and issued an arrest warrant for him through Interpol.
Believing that he would not be given a fair trial, Patarkatsishvili refused to come in for questioning and, on July 4, 2001, he gave an interview to the Kommersant newspaper setting out his version of events in an attempt to clear his name. To avoid prosecution in Russia, Patarkatsishvili moved to Tbilisi where he had been granted political asylum. Obituary: Badri Patarkatsishvili, Tom Parfitt, The Guardian, London, 02-15-2008.Accessed: 04-05-2008. Further charges relating to the misappropriation of AvtoVaz were added in October 2002.Obituary, Badri Patarkasishvili Daily Telegraph, 14.02.2008
Investment and philanthropy in Georgia Upon his return, Patarkatsishvili began investing much of the wealth that he had accumulated in Russia into his native country. He had become personally wealthier than the entire state budget and so was able to invest in business ventures and charitable projects in a scale that had been previously unimaginable to the impoverished country. He bought the Tbilisi city football team, Dinamo Tbilisi, the Kulevi oil terminal and financed a new shopping centre in the capital and a holiday resort on the Black Sea.
He also became the head of the federation of Georgian businessmen and head of the Georgian National Olympic Committee, subsidized social programs and cultural activities, and on two occasions paid debts for the gas and electricity consumed by Tbilisi residents. He funded several charity projects including schools, amusement parks — even a monastery. In return for these paternal gifts, the then president Eduard Shevardnadze agreed to allow him the state's protection from charges against him in Russia.
In December 2001, he founded Imedi Media Holding, the first independent broadcasting station in Georgia.
Involvement in politics in Georgia During his early career, Patarkatsishvili had shown little interest in politics. However, when the Rose Revolution began in 2003 and Patarkatsishvili could see that Eduard Shevardnadze was losing his grip on power, he used his wealth to support the new opposition candidate Mikheil Saakashvili.