On Feb 13, 6:03=A0pm, ostap_bender_1...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/02/14/russia-sergei-dorenko-on...
>
> Russia: Sergei Dorenko on Badri Patarkatsishvili
>
> Badri Patarkatsishvili, an exiled Georgian tycoon, opposition
> politician and Boris Berezovsky's longtime friend and business
> partner, died unexpectedly on Feb. 12 in England.
>
> Here is what journalist Sergei Dorenko, who headed Berezovsky's ORT
> channel's news service under Patarkatsishvili, has written (RUS) about
> his former boss and the people who surrounded him:
>
> I called Boris [Berezovsky], asked him whether it was really so.
>
> He could barely talk - very difficult for him. But he confirmed, yes,
> Badri [Patarkatsishvili] is gone.
>
> Strange and hard to believe.
>
> Then I also talked to a friend who was doing some business with Badri,
> and they'd had a phone conversation at 7 PM London time yesterday.
> Badri was full of energy during that conversation, joked a lot and
> sounded beautifully.
>
> He died at 11 PM London time.
>
> And I had also spent nearly two weeks with Badri, from Dec. 14 to 26.
> Saw him for many hours daily - from morning till evening. A very
> strong person. Very energetic. Don't remember him complaining of being
> tired, not once, don't remember him feeling unwell, or taking any
> medication, or visiting doctors.
>
> Since he was running for president of Georgia, there was a lot of work
> to be done. But he was managing well. He was coping with pressure
> better than I'm capable of - because I can't stand sleep deprivation
> at all.
>
> He was 52. He would've turned 53 at the end of October.
>
> Everyone's asking me about him, but I don't know what to say, except
> for what I've said above.
>
> He is Berezovsky's friend. More than a friend. More than a brother.
>
> He was a good friend of Kostya Ernst [director general of ORT]. Until
> Putin invited Kostya to join him. They had reached an agreement.
> Kostya called Badri after the meeting with Putin and told him very
> loudly and clearly: "Badri, I'm a piece of ****." And then he hung up
> right away. I think this says a lot about Ernst. Characterizes him
> positively overall as a human being. He could've abstained from
> calling, but he did call. It means a lot. And this is how Badri
> thought about it. And Kostya today could've said a lot about his
> friend.
>
> [Andrei Lugovoi, ex-KGB operative, currently a deputy of the State
> Duma, accused of murdering Aleksandr Litvinenko] had been working
> under his command for a long time. Lugovoi has a lot to tell, I think.
>
> I used to run into Lugovoi in Badri's reception area. As for Kostya
> Ernst, I used to see him in Patarkatsishvili's study. Though it wasn't
> too often that I passed through that reception into that study. Badri
> ran the finances of [the ORT Channel], while I was in the news. We the
> news folks are a special caste, the elite [...]. We don't need money,
> don't give a damn about the money - that is, we don't count the money
> and never will, and who gets the money and where from, it's none of
> our business. Well, Badri was somehow getting the money, and we never
> bothered to ask whether it was easy for him or not...
>
> So yeah, it'd be worth it to ask Kostya some questions. And Lugovoi.
>
> And me, what can I recall?
>
> He tried to look very respectable. He was imitating Stalin a little
> bit? The way he acted, the way he spoke...
>
> Once, at Berezovsky's birthday party in 1997, Badri came up to me and
> patted me on the should, saying: "Attaboy, attaboy!" Then he moved his
> hand the way I interpreted as an attempt to pat me on the cheek
> superiorly. I'm not sure, because I turned around and evaded his pat,
> and left outraged.
>
> I waked through the hall. I walked through the vestibule. I walked
> down the stairs of the [LogoVAZ] receptions building. I got outside
> and ran towards my Pajero. Got behind the wheel. But couldn't shut the
> door - because Boris had been walking behind me all this time. He held
> the Pajero's door and asked: "Don't leave, it's my birthday, forgive
> him, this is the way he is, this is how he's used to be, he's
> Georgian. Over there in Georgia it's okay for people to touch one
> another, it's not considered offensive." I responded angrily and with
> curses, said bad things about the Caucasian habit of standing 20 cm
> from each other, yelling right into the other guy's mouth, patting on
> the shoulder, etc. Boris said he really wanted me to accept Badri the
> way he was, because Badri was his friend, the only REAL friend. Boris
> was standing out in the freezing Moscow street on Jan. 23, without his
> jacket on. At some point, I pointed out to him that he was freezing,
> standing the way he did, holding the Pajero's door. He admitted the
> absurdity of the scene - bodyguards five meters away, on tram rails,
> me inside the car, he right next to it. Well, it was kind of silly. It
> was his birthday, moreover. And so I returned.
>
> Eventually, we did forgive each other. Me and Badri. When I became
> d=E9class=E9d and he turned into an exile. We started to interact,
little
> by little, carefully, every minute expecting to find a reason to have
> a fight. And we didn't find any reason to fight.
>
> And now we'll never have it at all.
>
> Though, here's one: this death of his is so sudden and inexplicable -
> what kind of a prank is that?
>
> I really, really regret it. It's bitter for me to think that our
> Badrik is dead. And I'm happy to have known him and to have worked
> with him.
>
> And I fear for Boris - Litvinenko was quite a blow, and Badri is a
> blow that's many times as forceful.
>
> A question: did he [leave] by himself or was he helped to. I'd like to
> get an answer to this question.
>
> Garry Kasparov's aide Marina Litvinovich (LJ user abstract2001) posted
> a link to Dorenko's account on her blog and wrote (RUS):
>
> Other people's lives.
>
> Dorenko writes in his LJ about Badri, Berezovsky, Ernst, about his
> departure from ORT (in exchange for a loan for ORT from Primakov - the
> war of clans had already started then, and it ended with Putin's
> arrival).
>
> Nice, useless details - and the significant ones are showing through.
>
I recall Badri's long interview to Topaller on RTVi America in
December 2007, during the Georgian presidential campaign. Topaller
tried to provoke Badri into saying bad things about Russia. But Badri
replied that, yes. he will never agree with Russia's sup****t for
Ossetian and Abkhazian independence and Russia's condescendingly
treating Georgia as a younger brother, but these disagreements "should
be solved through love and understanding" and not through
Saakashvili's hostilities. if he became President, he continued, he
would conduct a very firm and independent but friendly and sane policy
towards Russia.
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