Media Speculation on Berezovsky’s ‘Secret Visit’
A Georgian news agency, InterPressNews, reported on Saturday that Boris Berezovsky, an exiled Russian tycoon, secretly visited Tbilisi last week.
The news agency said it obtained the information that Berezovsky was in Tbilisi on September 11 from unnamed “reliable source”. According to the same report, while in Tbilisi Berezovsky visited a grave of his former business partner, late tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili; he is buried in yard of his mansion in the Georgian capital.
The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has denied the report.
InterPressNews also carried on September 19 a brief interview with Berezovsky. Asked if he was in Tbilisi, Berezovsky responded: “I do not comment on my travel routes… Lot’s of information is usually reported for certain purposes and very often these information are not true.” Then asked if it meant that he was denying visiting Tbilisi, Berezovsky again repeated: “As I told you I do not comment on my travel routes.”
The report was picked up and carried by numerous Russian media sources, but remained largely ignored by the Georgian media on September 19.
InterPressNews also carried number of separate reports on the issue with brief interviews of some pro-opposition analysts and figures suggesting that if the report about Berezovsky’s visit was true, it meant that he could have met with some figures from the authorities.
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