Patarkatsishvili, Badri

▪ 2009

Arkady Shalovich Patarkatsishvili 

      Georgian oligarch

born Oct. 31, 1955, Tbilisi, Georgia, U.S.S.R. [now in Georgia]

died Feb. 12, 2008, Leatherhead, Surrey, Eng.

made a fortune in labyrinthine business dealings during the post-Soviet period of privatization of state-owned industries in Russia; he was instrumental in the 2003 Rose Revolution, which brought Mikheil Saakashvili to power in Georgia, but finally came to oppose Saakashvili. Patarkatsishvili became a regional director of Boris Berezovsky's LogoVAZ car-distribution network in 1990 and by 1992 was the company's deputy general director. He moved to Moscow in 1993 and became involved with, among other businesses, the oil company Sibneft and two television stations. The business climate in Russia changed with the rise to power of Pres. Vladimir Putin, and in 2001 Patarkatsishvili returned to Georgia, where he invested heavily in local businesses and media outlets. He was believed to have been an impetus for the antigovernment riots in Tbilisi in November 2007 and was accused of plotting a coup; he fled to England, from which he launched an unsuccessful campaign for Georgia's presidency.

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