Big Business Mediates Adjara Crisis
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| Badri Patarkatsishvili will try to defuse tensions between Tbilisi and Batumi. |
Representatives of big business, led by influential media and financial tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili left for Batumi to hold talks with Aslan Abashidze on April 15. A group of businesspeople held talks with President Saakashvili on the eve of meeting with Abashidze on April 14.
“We will try to emphasize on economic factors in order to defuse tensions. We are going in Batumi with particular proposals” Badri Patarkatsishvili told reporters before departure to the Adjarian Autonomy.
A group of businessmen also includes MP Vano Chkhartishvili, co-founder of United Georgian Bank, Temur Chkonia, the president of Coca-Cola Bottlers Georgia, MP Gogi Topadze, a beer magnate, Mamuka Khazaradze, founder of TBC Group and MP Niko Lekishvili, former chairman of the Taxpayers Union.
“The both sides should make concessions. Only this will defuse tensions,” Vano Chkhartishvili said after the meeting with the President.
“Adjara is a barrel of gunpowder. Situation is really alarming and we are going there to defuse tensions,” Gogi Topadze told reporters after the talks with President Saakashvili.
“Forceful resolution of the standoff would be disastrous for the country and Georgian business. Do not even dream about foreign investments in this case,” Temur Chkonia said.
“Our main goal will be to somehow defuse radical stance of both sides,” Niko Lekishvili said.
Badri Patarkatsishvili was elected as the chairman of the Georgian Taxpayers Union – a business lobby group – on April 14. After elections he offered the businesspeople to mediate a standoff with Adjara authorities.
“We have no right to stand aside. I am sure businessmen can contribute to peaceful solution of the problem,” said Patarkatsishvili, who has never made his covert involvement in Georgian politics public before.
Badri Patarkatsishvili, a controversial figure, closely associated with Russian business circles and facing charges in Russia on a number of counts of financial impropriety, arrived in Georgia in 2001. Russia has officially requested Georgia in 2003 Patarkatsishvili’s extradition; however Tbilisi turned a blind eye on request.
Badri Patarkatsishvili, former aide to Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, started to gain a huge influence within Georgian political circles since 2001. He also started to build a media empire – Imedi (Hope), which includes a television, radio stations, a daily newspaper and a news agency. He has also purchased a great deal of real estate in the country and also owns soccer club Tbilisi Dynamo.
Tensions between Tbilisi and Batumi escalated after failed talks in Batumi on April 13 between Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze. Zurab Zhvania said after talks that Aslan Abashidze has chosen “a way of confrontation,” as Abashidze is strongly opposing the demands of the Georgian government to disarm his paramilitary forces.