why do all these ex criminal thugs come to our country? Why not ship em else where? Oh i know! Its cos we need them to bankroll our football teams!!!

Graham(expat)USA, Washington DC,

To Mr. Kenny of Hove in UK
"Keep it in your own country, comrades" is very well noted and since UK government is such a sucker for Chechen gangsters and Russian billionaires who stole their money, so they keep it in your, Kenny, country. Maybe it's time to send them back to the USSR?

Andrei, London/Moscow, Europe

Patarkacishvili is a huge problem for Georgia, and as a Georgian I am terrified by the prospect of having him as president. He is a thug, the godfather, and lets not forget how he made his billions. I blame him for the recent instability in Georgia and think the government was right to shut down his tv station, tho I dont agree with the methods they used. I think he is a dangerous man who is using my country to protect his own fortunes.

Nino, Tbilisi, Georgia

Does anyone know how Patarkatsishvili made his money? And do you really think his British PR company is working for him? I really doubt it. If I had been his PR I would not make this tape public. It all sounds so amateur and unprofessional! And this man wants to be a President of any country, even such a small one like Georgia is? It could have been funny if it had not been so
sad...

Along with all his other virtues the man is a coward and I do hope he will never go back to Georgia again!

Nina, Moscow, Russia

Personally, I do not believe Patarakatsishvili, I think he is just playing a very good game and his PR machine started working to help him to win votes (by the way, he hired top UK PR Firm for that). The man who wants to be a president because he is bored as he has everything (that what he said to the Russian RTVI TV channel during one of the interviews), who gained money through really dodgy deals in Russia, who is friend of Berezovsky and Lugovoy and he wants to help Georgia? Come on, if he wanted to do something he could have done it before, without inciting hatred and using the TV channel for his own propaganda ( Imedi TV became very biased and was showing totally subjective views). And those tapes somehow conveniently appeared before the elections? I do not think that accused Interior Ministry is so stupid to allow those conversations to be recorded, if it really happened. And if he is so scared for his life, how come he travels to Georgia so frequently and never got hurt? I would

Georgiana, London,

I am not a supporter of Patarkatsishvili in this presidential race, but I would say that he has a very solid chances to win (most recent OBGECTIVE polls show that he is third with 19%, while Saakashvili is second with 20). I strongly believe that Patarkatsishvili's intentions are aimed to help Georgian people in this difficult socio-economical being. In terms of this article, I personally think that without any hezitation, current Georgian interior ministry and its chief would’ve easily orderer this type of job (as they are nothing but a mob of the criminal gangs who in the very near past assassinated Georgian prime minister), so this article is not an allegation or another story to boost the presidential candidates profile, but the sorrow reality that any successful Georgian will face if has a different opinion than the current ruling party in Georgia.

Giogio, Tbilisi, Georgia

The Patarkatsishvili story is very strange.
• If he is so afraid of being targeted for assassination, then why does he employ bodyguards provided by Lugovoy?
• It is same Lugovoy that is sought by Britain on suspicion of assassination!
• Meanwhile Patarkatsishvili is seeking British cover and protection.
Figure that one out...

G-L Tedeschino, Ferrara, Italia

Keep it in your own country, comrades.

kenny , hove, uk

Your story fails to mention that Lugovoy, who is accused of poisoning Litvinienko in London, is Patarkatsishvili's longtime personal security chief. This should cast doubt on Patarkatsishvili's integrity, at the very least. Also, every public opinion poll in Georgia shows Patarkatsishvili to be a distant third or fourth, with single-digit support; so he is clearly not the primary opposition candidate, as you state. His public statements have become increasingly megalomaniacal, and this latest story he's shopping around via the Times of London--whose owner, News Corp., is his business partner--is clearly meant for the gullible. Patarkatsishvili can spend as much money as he likes buying off British elites and PR firms, but he cannot change the truth--that he stole his wealth from the Russian people, and this is why he needs 120 bodyguards, not because of his imagined schemes.

Spencer Whittle, London, UK

Some comments, if you let me.
"Mr Lugovoy, who was accused of murder formally by the Crown Prosecution Service in May, had been turned into a national hero in Russia, she said," - nothing of this kind, his name is more often evoked in the Westrn papers.
"Mr Putin rejected an extradition request from Britain, citing a constitutional ban, and dismissed the British case as stupid" -
that was the British request to change Russian constitution in order to make the extradition possible which Putin called stupid in fact.
"Lugovoy is now running for a seat in the Duma" - thats right, but it's necessary to mention that his is member of a party with nationalist views, which is far from being popular and trying to get some politic scores by the name of Lugovoy, so widely advertised by the West.

Finamrus, N.Novgorod, Russia

Your article omitted the meeting Lugovoy alleged did not occur between Boris Berezovsky and him on 31 October. The highest concentration of polonium 210 was found in the chair Berezovsky alleged Lugovoy sat in during that now disputed meeting. Lugovoy's suggestion that MI6 revisit the videos as proof that he did not attend that meeting with Mr. Berezovsky was rejected. Why?
The western mass media is not without complicity in its rush to judgement against Lugovoy. Clearly there are irrefutable signs of collected amnesia on the part of the mass media on Berezovsky's Godfather of the Kremlin days with the mass media now hanging on his every word in support of his media campaign against his greatest nemesis, Vladimir Putin.
At the end of the day, Lugovoy may prove not to be the "useful idiot" of the FSB Yuri Shvets, Mr. Berezovsky's trusted confidant, alleged he was. In an email to me, Mr. Shvets expressed shock over Mr. Berezovsky's pulic statement that a meeting had occurred.

K. von Gerhke, Alexandria, VA USA

Stalin not mention here. He and his enemies died 50 years ago.

ol, Voronezh, Russia

@ Paul Cheney:
How interesting! Tell us about Dr. Kelly for example. He committed suicide too... or he didnt?

Igor, Moscow, Russia

Litvinenko - the TRAITOR of Russia! In Russia will never recollect it, as well as Gordievsky! For Russian are traitors of the country! With Putin in Russia respect, your English antiRussian propagation only strengthens respect for Putin and that who spoke always: " the West - is false and hypocritical "! In Russia in the government the new people, the new sights, new ideas! The western policy is formed by such people, as Bzhezinsky and other old vegetables! You live past and not able to look ahead!

Putilova L., Moscow,

Of course ! and I'm sure all Stalin's enemies committed suicide too !!

Paul Chenery, London,