London death mystery of Putin enemy

Robert Mendick
London Evening Standard
Wednesday February 13, 2008

A London-based billionaire who feared he was about to be murdered has been found dead at his Surrey home.

Badri Patarkatsishvili, 52, who made his £6billion fortune in his native Georgia, said recently of his political enemies: "I believe they want to kill me."

He was an opponent of Russian president Vladimir Putin but the most likely threat is believed to come from Georgia. He is charged there with plotting a coup after standing unsuccessfully against president Mikhail Saakashvili in elections.

Mr Patarkatsishvili is a close friend of Boris Berezovsky, another so-called oligarch who is also an outspoken critic of Mr Putin.

Mr Patarkatsishvili appeared in good health during a four-hour meeting held in the City yesterday with Mr Berezovsky and two other exiled tycoons, Nikolay Glushkov and Yuli Dubov, all wanted in Moscow.

Mr Patarkatsishvili said in December that he had 120 bodyguards but did not feel safe anywhere. Lord Goldsmith, the former Attorney General, who was acting for Mr Patarkatsishvili, said he was taking the death threats "very seriously". Mr Patarkatsishvili had claimed he had obtained a tape recording of an official in his country's interior ministry asking a Chechen warlord to murder him while he was London.

Lord Bell, the PR guru and Mr Patarkatsishvili's spokesman, who was at the City meeting, said today: "The death needs to be investigated. He had advised police recently that he was fearful of an assassination attempt.

"He appeared in good health at the meeting. At one point during the meeting he complained he was a little overcome by the warmth of the room and left to get some fresh air. Knowing Badri he was probably having a cigarette. When he came back he seemed absolutely fine and full of energy."

Lord Bell said Mr Patarkatsishvili was found dead at his £10million home called Norbury Park near Leatherhead at about 11pm last night of a suspected heart attack. Surrey police are investigating and are treating his death as suspicious. Mr Patarkatsishvili lived there with his wife with whom he had two children.

Mr Patarkatsishvili was seen as a driving force behind anti-government protests in Georgia in November and was under investigation on charges of plotting to overthrow the government. He denied the accusations but acknowledged offering large sums of money to police to side with protesters. The protests were violently broken up by police.

Full article here.