FACTBOX: Who is Badri Patarkatsishvili?
(Reuters) - Georgian prosecutors charged opposition tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, 52, on Thursday with plotting a coup and attempting to organize a terrorist attack.
A bitter opponent of President Mikhail Saakashvili, he left Georgia after mass opposition protests late last year.
Here are some key facts on Badri Patarkatsishvili:
* ROAD TO MILLIONS:
-- The silver-haired mustachioed Patarkatsishvili, whose name means "son of a little man", was born in Tbilisi in October 1955.
-- He made millions in Russia during the chaotic privatizations of the 1990s, is mainly based in London and Tel Aviv and has not been in Georgia since prosecutors said late last year he was wanted for questioning over coup plot charges.
-- He has close links to fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who once wielded huge political influence in Moscow in the 1990s and lives in self-imposed exile in London.
-- His Russian-based business interests included AvtoVaz , the country's biggest car manufacturer, oil company Sibneft and aluminum firm Rusal.
-- When Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili were charged in Russia with fraud, both left the country. They no longer own major stakes in the firms.
* TURMOIL IN GEORGIA:
-- Allies of Saakashvili have said the independent television station Imedi, which Patarkatsishvili co-owns with News Corp., was a mouthpiece for his opponents during recent anti-government protests. After the protests, a court banned the station but the ban has since been lifted.
-- Georgia's Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said at the end of last November he wanted Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to buy Imedi outright.
* AN ELECTION U-TURN:
-- Saakashvili called elections after tens of thousands of people joined protests in November to demand an early poll, four years after a peaceful revolution swept him to power. The president was accused of failing to reform the economy and tackle corruption.
-- Patarkatsishvili was a driving force behind the protests, after which prosecutors accused him of plotting a coup attempt. He said on December 27 he was pulling out of the presidential race, citing a threat to his life.
-- However on January 3, he said he would run in the elections held two days later. Saakashvili won the elections, which his opponents called rigged. Patarkatsishvili got about seven percent, election officials said.
(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
