Badri Patarkatsishvili

Arkady Shalvovich "Badri" Patarkatsishvili (ბადრი პატარკაციშვილი 31 October 1955 – 12 February 2008) was a Georgian businessman who also became extensively involved in politics.

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.

From humble origins, he became the wealthiest citizen in Georgia with an estimated wealth of $12bn.

He was also one of the country's largest philanthropists.

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.

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.

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.

In the late 1990s, Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili also purchased Kommersant the one of Russia's most influential political newspapers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. From 1994 until mid-2000, Patarkatsishvili was a key figure at ORT.

In 1997, he was selected to oversee the privatization of the Sibneft oil company.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

He contested the 2008 Georgian presidential election and came third with 7.1% of the votes.

Patarkatsishvili suddenly died intestate in February 2008 sparking one of the largest estate battles in legal history.

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.

In October 2018, the government of Georgia officially accused the former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili of ordering Patarkatsishvili's assassination.