A bitter struggle for control over the Radisson Slavjanskaya Hotel has again burst into the open as the Moscow Property Committee threatened to dissolve the hotel's $50 million joint venture and one partner said he was being driven out and had begun wearing a bullet-proof vest.


Paul Tatum, the president of Americom Business Centers and a director of the three-headed joint venture that governs the hotel, said the Moscow Property Committee wants to wrest authority from its two associates and sell the hotel out from under them.


"They are asking for total control of the joint venture," Tatum said. The hotel is owned by a partnership that includes Americom, the property committee and the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Radisson Hotel Corp.


The property committee, however, has its own take on events at the marble-lined hotel. Its president, Alexander Zaitsev, said Radisson and Americom owe the city $10 million in rent and had better pay up fast or face closure.


"If not, the tax police will show up and shut the place down. We have the total right to shut them down and say 'Goodbye, there is no joint venture any more,'" Zaitsev said. Americom provides office space and services at the Radisson to companies doing business is Moscow.


With its movie theater, exclusive shops, lavish restaurants and sweeping salons, the hotel is a magnet for some of Moscow's most extravagant tourists and wealthiest residents. It employs more than 1,300 people and counts 30 expatriates in its joint venture.


Zaitsev denied charges that he intends to sell the hotel. Instead, he spoke as if the hotel already belonged to the committee. "This is Russian property. For two years they haven't paid us a kopek," he said. "They are living on Russia's money."


The problem, Zaitsev said, lies with Tatum, and not with the Radisson corporation, for which he had nothing but praise. "We have a reliable and experienced partner in Radisson. We intend to expand their involvement in the future. We need them." Radisson officials in Moscow did not return phone calls.


For Tatum, Zaitsev had nothing but bile. He called him a "criminal" and said he would seek assistance from the American Embassy to resolve the matter. "We will be writing them a memorandum."


But the two western partners could not owe the property committee any money, Tatum said. At multiple board meetings, he said, the partners agreed to suspend rent payments to conduct renovations. "Mr. Zaitsev is way out in left field. He is crazy. He doesn't know the documents."


Not so, Zaitsev insisted. "It's a lie. There is no such agreement." The only agreement Zaitsev cited was a Wednesday board decision to make debt repayment part of the 1995 budget. According to Zaitsev, Tatum cast the only 'no' vote. Tatum said he stormed out of the meeting in disgust before a vote was taken, robbing the board of a quorum.


Money is not the only source of controversy at the Radisson, and this is not the first time the partners have openly clashed. Last June, Tatum was locked out of his office after both sides accused each other of a host of improprieties. Tatum now claims the Russians are trying to oust general director Uwe Christiansen -- they failed to renew his visa, Tatum says -- and replace him with Umar Dzhabrailov, who works for the committee and is Christiansen's deputy.


"As of yesterday one of the threats was that we could be closed down tomorrow unless we agreed to Mr. Dzhabrailov as acting general director," Tatum said. Tatum is apparently expecting additional threats. He wears a bullet-proof vest and has hired a crew of five well-connected bodyguards.


Dzhabrailov said that all he wants is for the partners to settle up. "The Russian side wants the joint venture to pay its debt. This is the only joint venture that is not making its rent payments and it has an annual revenue of $50 million."


From there, it gets ugly. Dzhabrailov, who once joined forces with Tatum in a previous management scuffle, feels his onetime colleague has abandoned him.


"I feel betrayed from the human side. I really helped him," he said of Tatum. "Now he is using my nationality, saying that I am Chechen mafia."


Moscow mafia-watcher Yury Shchekochikhin, a reporter for Literaturnaya Gazeta, also believes the hotel may have a hidden partner. "As far as I know, the hotel is under the control of the Chechen mafia," he said.


Dzhabrailov said this was nonsense. "I can only laugh. I am the only Chechen in this company."