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Tycoon helps foes of Georgia's president
2007-11-08
He's thought to be Georgia's wealthiest man, but Badri Patarkatsishvili is known these days for politics -- as a driving force in the opposition movement that led the embattled president to turn police on protesters and declare a state of emergency. He even handed over his control of Georgia's most popular TV station last month to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. so he could concentrate on pursuing his longtime goal of driving President Mikhail Saakashvili from office. "I will do everything and give all my strength and all my resources to free Georgia from this fascist regime," Patarkatsishvili said in a radio interview Thursday. "I do not think this government will remain for long." The pro-Western government has accused Patarkatsishvili and other foes of creating unrest at the bidding of the Kremlin, which Saakashvili has angered by working to lessen Russian influence and move this former Soviet republic into close ties with NATO and the European Union. Although he made his fortune in post-Soviet Russia before returning to his native Georgia, Patarkatsishvili denies any links to the regime in Moscow, noting he has been charged with fraud by Russian authorities. He also is a close associate of Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, who lives in exile in London and is a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "One can hardly accuse me of being on the side of the Russian authorities," Patarkatsishvili said in the interview with Ekho Moskvy radio, speaking from Israel. Patarkatsishvili built up the Imedia television station into Georgia's most popular channel, and it has broadcast highly critical reports of Saakashvili's administration. Last month, he transferred his controlling stake in the station to News Corp., saying he wanted to devote his efforts to support opposition parties. The station broadcast live coverage Wednesday of riot police violently breaking up an opposition protest in the center of the capital, Tblisi. That evening, masked policemen raided Imedia's headquarters, assaulting journalists, smashing equipment and taking the station off the air. Under a state of emergency imposed by Saakashvili late Wednesday, all news broadcasts were banned except on state-controlled TV. Murdoch deplored the attack in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. He said that managers had been working to make Imdeia's reporting less partisan since News Corp. took control and that Patarkatsishvili no longer had any editorial oversight. "We have instructed, we have monitored to make sure that every news broadcast is absolutely fair and balanced and down the middle," he said. "But apparently (the authorities) weren't watching. We invited them to come on the air and put their case and instead 200 goons turned up and smashed the place up. And the people." "We're shocked and horrified that in what was allegedly a democratic country something like this could happen ... that, effectively, stations are put off the air," Murdoch said. Saakashvili rose to the presidency almost four years ago after peaceful mass protests against the previous government, but Patarkatsishvili and other critics accuse him of ignoring laws and running roughshod over political foes. The president's announcement late Thursday that he would call an early presidential election for January didn't mollify the businessman. "Nobody should have any illusions that the authorities had heard the voice of the people," Patarkatsishvili said in a statement. "Mr. Saakashvili is once again deceiving the people, starting the campaign, while the state of emergency is in force, thus creating advantages for himself." He predicted the government will seek to force opposition candidates out of the race, such as accusing them of links to Russia. He urged opposition factions to unite around a single challenger to the incumbent. Patarkatsishvili, who once owned Georgia's most storied soccer team, was forced out as the longtime chairman of the country's Olympic committee last month. In his resignation letter, he said, "My heartfelt and open position about a better tomorrow for Georgia increasingly differs from the position of those currently in power." His ouster was preceded by an event that catalyzed the political opposition and riveted Georgians' attention -- allegations by former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili that Saakashvili was involved in corruption and a plot to murder Patarkatsishvili. Saakashvili's supporters vehemently denied the allegations, and Okruashvili was shown on a video retracting his charges. The president accused opposition forces of organizing a "campaign of lies" against him in an attempt to weaken the Georgian state.
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