Paul Tatum

Who was Paul Tatum?

Paul Tatum was an American businessman who was killed on November 3, 1996, in a Moscow metro station close to his hotel. Tatum was operating a Hotel Joint Venture with a Chechen businessman named Umar Dzhabrailov. Tatum founded the Americom Business Centre and became part-owner of the Radisson Slavyankaya Hotel, an upscale hotel in Moscow, which catered to foreign businessmen and high-end guests.

Tatum was born in Edmond, Oklahoma, USA, and travelled to Russia in 1985, involving himself in various business activities. He reportedly knew President Clinton, who was a regular guest of his hotel while visiting Russia on state visits. During the attempted coup in Russia in the summer of 1991, Tatum had supplied president Boris Yeltsin's only link to the outside world by giving him satellite linkage from a government building in Moscow, which was surrounded by army units trying to overthrow his fledgling democratic government.

Tatum had numerous disputes with his hotel partner Umar Dzhabrailov, at one point taking out a full page ad in a local Moscow newspaper alleging Dzhabrailov was blackmailing Tatum and trying to force him out of the hotel joint venture.