Tycoons and television: a dangerous combination

Michael Hedges February 13, 2008

A day earlier this would have been a story about a television station, controversial in itself, changing owners. A Russian billionaire or two thrown in and the story gets a bit more interesting. But when the stations’ principal owner ‘suspiciously’ drops dead, this story took yet a different turn. Oh, add Rupert Murdoch to the mix.

Georgia is a small and beautiful country on the southern edge of Russia, once part of the Soviet Union. It is not a rich country, poverty is austere, but with its’ Silk Road tradition it has yielded a few post-Soviet billionaires. The biggest was Badri Patarkatsishvili.

Like other post-Soviet nations, Georgia had its’ ‘colored’ revolution, the Rose Revolution of 2003, further straining ties with Russia. The new president, Mikheil Saakashvili, attracted Western aid and investment. After three years he also attracted a vocal opposition. The most vocal was Badri Patarkatsishvili.

Badri Patarkatsishvili made his fortune the post-Soviet way, making deals with deal makers. He was in the automobile trading business with Boris Berezovsky, the fugitive Russian billionaire now living in London. When Berezovsky ran the Russian television channel ORT, Patarkatsishvili was his deputy, sales manager albeit. Over the years they maintained close contact. In November Berezovsky told Bloomberg he’d “passed all” his businesses in Russia to Patarkatsishvili.

About the same time Mr. Berezovsky fell out of favor in Russia and had to get out quick, Patarkatsishvili returned, part-time, to Georgia. Russian authorities have sought both for a variety of charges, fraud being one. The UK refused to extradite Berezovsky, offering him asylum. Patarkatsishvili was at first protected by the last Georgia president Eduard Shevardnadze. After the Rose Revolution exchanged Shevardnadze for Saakasvili, Patarktsishvili supported Saakasvili.

Upon returning to Georgia Patarktsishvili founded Imedi TV and radio, the radio licenses previously being owned by Metromedia International and passed on through Berezovsky. But Patarktsishvili and Saakasvili were not to remain allies, turning on each other. And Patarktsishvili turned Imedi TV into the opposition television channel.

In the midst of all that Patarktsishvili took on an investor in Imedi TV, News International and Rupert Murdoch. Imedi TV became known as the ‘independent’ news source in Georgia, other channels more or less controlled by friends of Saakasvili. All of this became noticeable when Patarktsishvili announced that he would fund opposition to Saakasvili, at first, then he’d be a candidate for president in the snap elections called in January. The Georgian government shut down Imedi TV.

News International moved in to save the day, taking over ‘management’ of the television station to allow Patarktsishvili to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest. Eventually, Imedi TV was allowed back on the air. Saakasvili was reelected. Patarktsishvili stayed in London.

Yesterday (Tuesday February 13) a report surfaced in the Georgian Times that Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich would buy Imedi TV. Abramovich lives in London, owns the Chelsea football club and maintains close ties with the current Russian establishment, billionaires and politicians. Patarkatsishvili would sell Imedi TV as well as his interest in the Tbilisi Dynamo football club.

The Georgian Times reporter contacted News International man-on-the-scene Lewis Robertson who had no idea what Mr. Abramovich was up to. He did say that News International had offered to buy from Mr. Patarkatsishvili his stake in the station but nothing had transpired.

But everything changed when, last night (Tuesday February 12) Patarkatsishvili, aged 52, dropped dead in his London home. Initial reports said it was a heart attack. British media reported police calling the death ‘suspicious.’ Sky News, owned by News Corporation, said “In the light of (Alexander) Litvinenko's death in 2006 they are treating it very seriously and want to investigate properly to rule out foul play or to find out whether he was the subject of a hit.”

It was Alexander Litvinenko’s death, an obvious hit, which started a spiral of worsening relations between the UK and Russia. The suspected hit-man, Andrei Lugovoi, was at one time Patarkatsishvili’s bodyguard. He was also a FSB/KGB agent.

It would seem that any Western media investor looking at putting real money or energy into the post-Soviet States might be very careful about picking partners.