Georgian opposition leader's death "suspicious"

UK police view Georgian opposition leader Badri Patarkatsishvili's death as suspicious, a spokesman said today "He died at 11:00 pm" Tuesday in London, Boris Berezovsky, the Russian tycoon and former business parter of Patarkatsishvili, told AFP by telephone from London, where he lives in exile. Georgian opposition leader's death "suspicious" The cause of death was heart failure, according to Nona Gaprindashvili, another associate of Patarkatsishvili, quoted by Georgia's Mze television. Patarkatsishvili was 52. The flamboyant businessman was Georgia's richest man and the force behind an opposition movement that took to the streets in the Georgian capital Tbilisi last November, prompting a violent police crackdown. Pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili's government accused Patarkatsishvili, who lived mostly in Britain and Israel, of attempting to mount a coup. His Imedi television company, part owned with global media mogul Rupert Murdoch, was temporarily shut down. Patarkatsishvili hit back at the coup accusations, claiming that he himself had been the victim of an assassination plot. In a snap presidential poll this January, in which Saakashvili won re-election, Patarkatsishvili got seven percent of the vote. Gaprindashvili, a political ally in Tbilisi, expressed surprise at Patarkatsishvili's early death. "They say that heart failure caused the death, but he felt very well as far as I know," he was quoted as saying on Mze television's website. Berezovsky, a fierce Kremlin critic who has political asylum in Britain, would not comment on whether there was anything suspicious about Patarkatsishvili's death. "I don't know anything. It's in the hands of the police right now," he said. A Georgian of Jewish descent, Patarkatsishvili cut his political teeth as a member of the Soviet-era Komsomol youth organization, where he met many of his future business contacts. He made his fortune working with Berezovsky in Moscow in the early 1990s, when the Russian businessman was known as the "grey cardinal of the Kremlin" for his close links with then-president Boris Yeltsin. In 1992, Patarkatsishvili became deputy director of LogoVAZ, Berezovsky's consignment dealer for AvtoVAZ, the famed Russian car manufacturer and maker of the Lada. His interest in the media -- which he would later pursue in Georgia -- began in 1995 when he became deputy director of Russia's ORT television channel. He later worked as general director for another Russian channel, TV6. He returned to Georgia in 2001, just as Russian prosecutors were pursuing him and other associates of Berezovsky, who had fallen out with Yeltsin's successor, Vladimir Putin. In June 2001, Patarkatsishvili was charged with attempting to organize the escape of Berezovsky associate Nikolai Glushkov from prison. In October 2002, he was charged with large-scale fraud during his time at LogoVAZ. After supporting Saakashvili in the 2003 peaceful uprising dubbed the Rose Revolution, Patarkatsishvili subsequently turned against the president.

Georgian opposition leader's death "suspicious"

The cause of death was heart failure, according to Nona Gaprindashvili, another associate of Patarkatsishvili, quoted by Georgia's Mze television. Patarkatsishvili was 52.

The flamboyant businessman was Georgia's richest man and the force behind an opposition movement that took to the streets in the Georgian capital Tbilisi last November, prompting a violent police crackdown.

Pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili's government accused Patarkatsishvili, who lived mostly in Britain and Israel, of attempting to mount a coup. His Imedi television company, part owned with global media mogul Rupert Murdoch, was temporarily shut down.

Patarkatsishvili hit back at the coup accusations, claiming that he himself had been the victim of an assassination plot. In a snap presidential poll this January, in which Saakashvili won re-election, Patarkatsishvili got seven percent of the vote.

Gaprindashvili, a political ally in Tbilisi, expressed surprise at Patarkatsishvili's early death. "They say that heart failure caused the death, but he felt very well as far as I know," he was quoted as saying on Mze television's website.

Berezovsky, a fierce Kremlin critic who has political asylum in Britain, would not comment on whether there was anything suspicious about Patarkatsishvili's death.

"I don't know anything. It's in the hands of the police right now," he said.

A Georgian of Jewish descent, Patarkatsishvili cut his political teeth as a member of the Soviet-era Komsomol youth organization, where he met many of his future business contacts.

He made his fortune working with Berezovsky in Moscow in the early 1990s, when the Russian businessman was known as the "grey cardinal of the Kremlin" for his close links with then-president Boris Yeltsin.

In 1992, Patarkatsishvili became deputy director of LogoVAZ, Berezovsky's consignment dealer for AvtoVAZ, the famed Russian car manufacturer and maker of the Lada.

His interest in the media -- which he would later pursue in Georgia -- began in 1995 when he became deputy director of Russia's ORT television channel. He later worked as general director for another Russian channel, TV6.

He returned to Georgia in 2001, just as Russian prosecutors were pursuing him and other associates of Berezovsky, who had fallen out with Yeltsin's successor, Vladimir Putin.

In June 2001, Patarkatsishvili was charged with attempting to organize the escape of Berezovsky associate Nikolai Glushkov from prison. In October 2002, he was charged with large-scale fraud during his time at LogoVAZ.

After supporting Saakashvili in the 2003 peaceful uprising dubbed the Rose Revolution, Patarkatsishvili subsequently turned against the president.