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“Is Abramovich going to buy Patarkatsishvili’s wealth?”

With business tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili wanted in Georgia on conspiracy charges, Akhali Taoba writes, his property within the country is in limbo.

Prosecutors have frozen his assets in the country, as well as assets belonging to some of his Georgian business associates.

Russian news agency Interfax, the newspaper relays, reports that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich is going to buy Patarkatsishvili’s property in Georgia after a deal was struck between the two billionaires.



“Bagapsh forces Russian passports on Georgians in Abkhazia”

Spring is drawing near and de facto Abkhaz president Sergey Bagapsh is growing nervous, Akhali Taoba writes.

The newspaper incorrectly claims that, in an angry meeting with his cabinet, Bagapsh demanded that Russian passports be forced on ethnic Georgians on Abkhaz-controlled territory.

Georgians are refusing the Russian passports, the newspaper adds, bringing a number of problems upon themselves in consequence.

Continuing with its almost entirely fictionalized report, the newspaper claims that Bagapsh threatened to fire his ministers if they cannot make the Georgian population of Abkhazia take Russian passports. Tbilisi officials say they will complain to international organizations, the newspaper concludes.

According to representatives of the separatist regime, Bagapsh ordered his ministers to distribute Abkhazian passports to Abkhaz residents of the breakaway territory.



“Tbilisi State University split in two”

Tbilisi State University celebrated its 90th anniversary on February 8, Sakartvelos Respublika reports, but not everyone was jovial.

University rector Gia Khubua led faculty in decorating the university, followed by church services in Sameba cathedral.

Meanwhile an opposition protest was held on the university’s campus the same day, to decry the alleged privatization of portions of the university. Khubua has denied that any university buildings are to be sold.

Jondi Baghaturia, the leader of oppositional Kartuli Dasi, told the newspaper they will fight to maintain the state university in its current form.

“The government denies that some of the university buildings have been sold off, but we must not forget that there was the same situation with the Sports Academy,” he said.



“Kokoiti warned me to change my place”

Residents of the de facto South Ossetian secessionist capital of Tskhinvali are speaking openly about “Kokoity’s clan” and “Kokoity’s parliament,” according to Sakartvelos Respublika.

The newspaper claims Tskhinvali residents are voicing complaints about the nepotism of de facto South Ossetian president Eduard Kokoity.

As an illustration of the breakaway region’s clannish structure, the newspaper points to Vazha Kokoev, who the paper says is a recently-arrested relative of Kokoity.

Tskhinvali was shocked, the newspaper claims, by the sight of Kokoev, a high-ranking defense ministry official, being escorted out of a government building in handcuffs.

“Edika [Eduard Kokoity] warned me to leave my post,” he reportedly told bystanders. According to the newspaper, Kokoev had embezzled funds.