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Posted by: kwflatbed

The sudden death of an exiled Georgian billionaire may have been another "Alexander Litvinenko-style" murder, it is feared.

Badri Patarkatsishvili


A major crime squad is investigating the death of 52-year-old Badri Patarkatsishvili, whose body was found at his country mansion in Surrey at about 11pm last night.
His family said he suffered a heart attack - but Surrey Police have launched an investigation to confirm the exact cause of death after reports of a plot to kill him.
Sky News' home affairs correspondent Mark White said: "The police want to leave no stone uncovered.
"In the light of 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."
Mr Patarkatsishvili - Georgia's richest man, with an estimated £6bn fortune - spoke recently of his fears for his life after one alleged plot against him was uncovered in London.
It has also been reported that an assassination plan bore chilling similarities to the killing of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
Mr Litvinenko - an outspoken critic of the Putin regime - was killed by radiation poisoning in London. Moscow has refused to extradite the prime suspect, ex-KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi.
Talking about Mr Patarkatsishvili's death at his home Downside Manor outside Leatherhead, a spokeswoman for Surrey Police said: "As with all unexplained deaths, it is being treated as suspicious.

Patarkatsishvili's mansion

"A post-mortem examination will be held later today to establish the cause of death."
Mr Patarkatsishvili amassed his wealth during the privatisation of state industries in Russia during the 1990s.
He helped to finance the Rose Revolution that swept President Mikhail Saakashvili to power in Georgia in 2003, but subsequently fell out with him.
The Georgian - who founded opposition TV channel Imedi in 2002 - backed mass street protests against the government in Tbilisi last November.
And just one month ago, Georgian prosecutors charged Mr Patarkatsishvili with plotting a coup after he had stood unsuccessfully against President Saakashvili in January elections.
In December he told the Sunday Times he did not feel safe returning to his home country.

Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned

The paper published extracts of a tape recording of a conversation said to have taken place between an official from the Georgian interior ministry and a possible hitman.
The two men allegedly discussed two options for making Mr Patarkatsishvili "disappear completely".
One involved murdering the tycoon during one of his regular visits to London and the other was to kill him as he flew in his private aeroplane to his castle in southern Georgia.
The official reportedly said Georgia wanted to be able to blame the assassination on Russia.
Asked whether he felt safe in Britain, Mr Patarkatsishvili told the Sunday Times: "I know about this tape and I was told it was very serious.
"I have 120 bodyguards but I know that's not enough. I don't feel safe anywhere and that is why I'm particularly not going to Georgia."
He also had close links to fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who lives in self-imposed exile in London. The outspoken Kremlin critic has spoken of the "terrible tragedy" of losing his "closest friend".

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...305269,00.html

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