Business | Face value

A different sort of oligarch

Having got rich in Russia, Kakha Bendukidze now wants to be the world's most capitalistic politician

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FORGET eBay. If you want to buy a dysfunctional boiler house, an international airport, a tea plantation, an oil terminal, a proctology clinic, a vineyard, a telephone company, a film studio, a lost-property office or a beekeepers' regulatory board, then call Kakha Bendukidze, Georgia's new economy minister. His privatisation drive has made him a keen seller of all the above. And for the right price he will throw in the Tbilisi State Concert Hall and the Georgian National Mint as well.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “A different sort of oligarch”

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From the July 31st 2004 edition

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