Death in Surrey

摘要

Stress can cause heart attacks, and Ba-dri Patarkatsishvili had a lifetime's dose of it. His exotic journey to wealth, power and exile in Britain included high-stakes political gambles that would have left milder characters twitching in terror. Seen one way, he was a champion of democracy, staking his fortune-and perhaps his life-to overturn corrupt and murderous rule in his native Georgia in the Caucasus. Seen another way, he was an opportunist using a murkily obtained fortune, loosely estimated at up to £6 billion, to topple Georgia's pro-Western government and move it closer to Vladimir Putin's Russia.