Georgia: Government Takes Aim at Media Tycoon

One day after the release of former defense minister Irakli Okruashvili, government officials are attacking media tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili for his supposed role in a plot against President Mikheil Saakashvili and his administration.

Key members of the governing National Movement Party and one government minister have accused Patarkatsishvili of "plotting intrigues" after Okruashvili recanted earlier allegations that the president was planning to "get rid of" the influential businessman. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

In a taped confession broadcast October 8, the former defense minister claimed that Patarkatsishvili and he had concocted the story in an effort to create a "favorable" climate for their political ambitions. He indicated that Imedi Television, a station co-owned by Patarkatsishvili and Rupert Murdoch-led News Corp., which has broadcast extensive interviews with Okruashvili, was used as "a tool" in the alleged scheme. Okruashvili was released from prison October 9, after pleading guilty to money laundering, extortion, abuse of office and work negligence. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Patarkatsishvili has denied the government's accusations, claiming that he and Okruashvili were not "close friends," although they had occasionally met over the past few months. "I was informed that he was planning to set up a political party," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Russian service on October 10. "I also knew that it would be an opposition party and not pro-governmental one."

He also refuted Georgian media claims that he had fled the country after Okruashvili's statements were broadcast on Georgian television. In comments to Imedi, he claimed he left the country for one day on a business trip and returned, as planned, on October 9.

Meanwhile, parliament, controlled by President Saakashvili's National Movement Party, has begun to tackle other areas of Patarkatsishvili's influence. On October 9, the legislature voted to remove the businessman from his post as president of the country's Olympic committee. At a late-night emergency session the same day, members of the Georgian National Olympic Committee (GNOC) voted in favor of impeaching Patarkatsishvili from his position. Widely seen as the founder of the Georgian Olympic movement, Patarkatsishvili was elected to a four-year term as president in 2004.

"A person, who is engaged in discrediting our country and the president [Mikheil Saakashvili], should not be the [GNOC] president," Minister of Culture and Sport Goka Gabashvili told reporters after the session. According to media reports, one member present walked out in protest, another voted against the motion. Kazbegi beverages company founder Gogi Topadze, the committee's vice-president, abstained from the vote, though he indicated a willingness to serve as the acting GIOC head until fresh elections are held.

In his interview with the BBC, Patarkatsishvili slammed the vote and refused to step down. "All the procedures were violated," he said. "So I do not relinquish my duties