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Berezovsky business partner Patarkatsishvili put on wanted list-1

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TBILISI, March 7 (RIA Novosti) - Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, a business partner of the controversial Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, has been put on the international wanted list, a local TV company said Wednesday.

The Imedi TV company, founded by Patarkatsishvili, said the Georgian Interior Ministry recently received a request from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office to detain and extradite the businessman.

But the Georgian Prosecutor General's Office and Interior Ministry denied Imedi reports that Patarkatsishvili is wanted in Georgia for further extradition to Russia.

"We are not searching for Badri Patarkatsishvili, but as far as I know he is still wanted in Russia," a senior official from the Interior Ministry said.

He also said Patarkatsishvili will not be extradited to Russia if detained in Georgia.

Patarkatsishvili told Imedi earlier he has sold all his assets in Georgia and left the country. Imedi said its founder currently lives in London.

The businessman said in one of his interviews that he was accused of interfering in Georgian politics.

"I did not want to interfere in politics, and decided to leave Georgia in order not to complicate the situation," he said, adding that he had no plans to give up his Georgian citizenship.

After Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, Patarkatsishvili and Berezovsky, a Kremlin insider under former President Boris Yeltsin, were put on the wanted list in Russia on fraud charges.

Legal proceedings were launched against Berezovsky and two former executives from the LogoVAZ car manufacturer, Patarkatsishvili and Yuly Dubov, in the summer of 2002.

They were accused of embezzling funds gained from the sale of more than 2,000 cars produced by the carmaker AvtoVAZ in 1994-1995.

In the fall of 2003, Berezovsky was granted political asylum in the United Kingdom.

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