The Georgian franchise of Forbes, Forbes Georgia, removed a complimentary articleabout businessman Tamaz Somkhishvili, whose Russian citizenship has been confirmed by the Defense Intelligence Service and who is trying to sue Kyiv for $100 million. The editor-in-chief and author of the article, Giorgi Isakadze, refused to comment on the situation to Ukrainian journalists.
This was reported by blogger Serhii Ivanov, who addressed the owners of Forbes - Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family.
"I found out about this by accident while working on the case of the Russian criminal Tamaz 'Tobolskyi' Somkhishvili, whose company repairs Russian combat aircraft and is now extorting $100 million from Kyiv. While monitoring the data on the subject of the study, I saw an openly image-building article by Georgian Forbes about Tobolskyi, and later found out that the magazine had removed the article," Ivanov writes.
He reminded that Somkhishvili and his lawyer are conducting an active media campaign: "At first, they promoted the narrative of a 'British investor' demanding money from the budget, this affecting our relations with London. They launched the campaign on pro-Russian websites... The British investor then bought a study claiming that a "discrediting campaign" was being waged against him and also posted it on pro-Russian Vesti. Later, the director of the Center for Content Analysis said in a comment to Glavkom that the buyer, Taras Dumych, misled the Center and did not say that the defendant was a Russian citizen and a thief-in-law," the journalist said.
Serhii Ivanov noted that in the midst of the media campaign, Georgian Forbes published an image-building story about Tamaz Somkhishvili moving from Georgia to Siberia, becoming one of the founders of Lukoil and running an aviation business. The article was later replicated by some Ukrainian websites. The article in Forbes Gorgia was removed, and Giorgi Isakadze not only refused to comment on it, but also replaced his photo in his Telegram account.
"Perhaps the US headquarters of Forbes expressed surprise at the material that whitewashes a Russian criminal associated with the main Russian mafia man Shakro the Young and Russian puppet Bidzina Ivanishvili. Or perhaps the 'investor' said something unnecessary in the interview and then tried to delete it," suggests Serhii Ivanov.
In his opinion, Tamaz Somkhishvili admitted that he was one of Lukoil's executives, had a joint business with Rosneft, was a Lukoil's buyer of the Odesa refinery from Grigoryi Surkis, and still has an office in Russia. Somkhishvili also did not deny that he has a relationship with Bidzina Ivanishvili and controls TAM-Management, which operates the Tbilisi Aviation Plant and is engaged in the repair and modernization of combat aircraft – SU-25 aircraft, MI-8 and MI-24 helicopters, and R60/73 missiles.
Serhii Ivanov hopes that Forbes Georgia editor-in-chief Giorgi Isakadze will provide answers as to why the material was removed, and that the owners of Forbes will give a proper assessment of the situation.