Translated material
“Or maybe it’s not Badri in the coffin?”
Georgians do not believe that their richest compatriot could die “so easily”
Tomorrow Georgia will say goodbye to its richest citizen, 52-year-old Badri Patarkatsishvili , who died on February 12 in London from a heart attack. The deceased's fortune is estimated at almost $10 billion.The oligarch will be buried in his Tbilisi residence, which is called “Arcadia” - after Patarkatsishvili’s real name. Once upon a time it was a palace of ceremonial rituals, in other words, a fashionable registry office. Now above “Arcadia”, towering in the ancient Tbilisi Ortachala district above the Kura River, a black and white portrait of a businessman is hung. On the other side are the buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General's Office. Badri looks at them from the portrait ironically, as if saying: “I didn’t make it alive.” After all, the Georgian authorities put the oligarch on the wanted list and wanted to arrest him, accusing him of attempting an anti-state conspiracy.
Knowledgeable residents of Tbilisi say that in Arcadia, both under the former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and under the current Mikheil Saakashvili, matters of national importance were carried out. The oligarch's guests at this residence were very famous and influential politicians. The ex-governor of the Imereti region, Temuri Shashiashvili, conveys to journalists the words of Patarkatsishvili, which the businessman himself told him shortly before his sudden death: “Saakashvili used to visit me every week, we had lunch and talked. He often called me and asked for advice.”
On Thursday, the day of the funeral, the “powers of this world” should also appear at the Arcadia residence. According to Georgian media, Israeli President Shimon Peres (the Georgian Jewish businessman had authority in Jewish communities around the world), Governor of Chukotka Roman Abramovich, State Duma deputy Andrei Lugovoi (who previously provided security for the oligarch), and brothers of US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will come to say goodbye to Patarkatsishvili - they were business partners of the Georgian oligarch.
Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch may appear in Arcadia. Most likely, Patarkatsishvili’s favorite brainchild, the Georgian television company Imedi, will go to him. This channel caused a quarrel between the oligarch and the authorities a couple of years ago. The latter did not like the fact that the businessman did not want to give the television that criticized them under their control. In Tbilisi they say that the oligarch’s closest friend, Boris Berezovsky, may also fly in, if only Georgia guarantees the immunity of this billionaire, who is wanted by Russia (as, indeed, Badri himself).
The coffin with the body of the deceased is installed in Arcadia in one of the halls. Many who come now to say goodbye to the deceased notice that the coffin lid is tightly closed. Quite a long time passed after his death, and in London the body was subjected to an autopsy and multiple examinations. After all, the oligarch warned that they wanted to kill him, and therefore British detectives began to suspect that his death was unnatural.
Yesterday morning, along the walls of the hall where the coffin stood, a mother, a widow, and two daughters of a businessman were located. The condolences looked at the tall, blond teenager: was this the same 14-year-old illegitimate son of the oligarch David, whose existence became known only the other day from the businessman’s will? “It looks like it,” someone says quietly.
Arcadia has an ambulance on duty in case one of your loved ones or guests becomes ill. There are no supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili in the line of condolences. “Our president needs to be asked why Badri died,” says a woman wearing black glasses, apparently hiding her tears. Another whispers: “Maybe it’s not Badri in the coffin? Maybe he was playing something? Well, like in the movie “Oligarch”. Well, such a person couldn’t just die!” According to a survey conducted by the Tbilisi weekly Kviris Palitra (Palette of the Week), 47% of Georgians do not believe in Patarkatsishvili’s natural death. Only 20% trust the official version. The British police continue to investigate the circumstances of the oligarch's sudden death. And the family also hired independent experts. According to British newspapers, the results of the toxicological examination will be known within eight weeks.
Political scientists believe that the death of the oligarch was a serious blow to the Georgian opposition: Patarkatsishvili was ready to donate funds to remove the regime of Mikheil Saakashvili. The leader of the united opposition, deputy Levan Gachechiladze, told Vremya Novostei: “Badri loved Georgia very much, he was ready to become its ordinary soldier. And his enemies fought him dirty.” Another oppositionist, former State Minister for Conflict Resolution Georgiy Khaindrava, who studied with the future billionaire at school, told Vremya Novostey that “Patarkatsishvili was brought to death, killed in a word, he could not bear this poison.”