Criminal accusations of corruption have been made against Craig Murray:
”
he lobbied so-called businessmen including those from Pakistan willing to get cotton and other state contracts, those people had contacts with different Uzbek clan representatives including Bekzod Akhmedov. Akhmedov was seen many times in Craig Murray and his pseudo businessmen’s company in dens of iniquity of the capital, Bekzod Akhmedov’s favorite venues.
”
The allegations must be taken extremely seriously because they come from an Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. The lady in question is of course Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the President of Uzbekistan. As is her usual method, she gave an interview to a glossy magazine journalist in Switzerland not given to probing questioning. Even this publication baulked at publishing these extraordinary statements, so she gave the full works on her blog:
For example yesterday in Geneva, on the first day of spring, we had another “support team” visiting us, those who are always ready to work off their payments while not having anything else to do, any other interests, hobbies or a properly paid job. A group of a few people including a cameraman, a lady of Uzbek origin Mutabar Tadjibaeva, who introduces herself as a president of the «Club des Coeurs Ardents» and guess who else? Exactly! Craig Murray – ex-ambassador to Uzbekistan, who had been scandalously fired from the British Foreign Office. He lived in Tashkent for a long time and had a relationship and even got married to a strip-bar dancer, he lobbied so-called businessmen including those from Pakistan willing to get cotton and other state contracts, those people had contacts with different Uzbek clan representatives including Bekzod Akhmedov. Akhmedov was seen many times in Craig Murray and his pseudo businessmen’s company in dens of iniquity of the capital, Bekzod Akhmedov’s favorite venues. It seems like the group of people that visited us in Geneva wanted to congratulate us with spring and express their grievance by screaming and as they said they wanted me or my sister Lola to come out. They attempted to sneak inside and walk around the house recording it all on video and we had nothing to do, but call the police and make our own video of this March invasion of “human right defenders” as they call themselves.
It is obvious, that those people mentioned above, a group of bloggers and professional PR firm such as R&R were not catalyzed accidentally. The core of the artificially initiated scandal is lost, constant threats, that someone will say something, someone like Bekzod Akhmeodv who is wanted by Interpol due to his relation to the investigation of MTS activities in Uzbekistan, who from the beginning was under the MTS-Russia protection and requested on January, 9 2013 refugee status with his big family. Also threats came for last three months from lawyers who were stating that they will have newspapers like Financial Times publish all they have, all that Bekzod Akhmedov could compose over almost a year which was accepted with pleasure by MTS lobbyists. Where else could you see such involvement at official level and could this be possible without high-reaching goals, even if it is done in such a straight way?
I might as well state for the record that to my knowledge I have never met or had any contact with Mr Bekzod Akhmedov, I have certainly never been in his social company, let alone on a “den of inquity” (though that does sound fun). I have never met any Pakistani businessmen in or to discuss Uzbekistan and I have never sought any role for myself in trading Uzbek cotton.
I certainly did visit Gulnara’s US $25 million mansion in Geneva, because I wanted to see where the proceeds of forced child labour in the Uzbek cotton fields went. I intend to do so again. I hope lots of people will – its at No. 7, Rue Prevote, Cologny, Geneva.
Gulnara’s peculiar attack on me for the “crime” of looking at her house appears a rather desperate reaction to increasing knowledge of her activities. The Chief Executive of Telesonera, Sweden’s largest telecommunications firm, had to resign recently over corrupt payments to Gulnara. In a decision reminiscent of Blair’s shutdown of the BAE Saudi bribes prosecution, Swedish authorities decided there was no public interest in prosecuting. Gulnara’s Swiss registered holding company Zeromax has been declared bankrupt, owing half a billion dollars to the state in taxes, and its assets confiscated then reprivatised to … Gulnara. Russian Telecoms giant MTS has been kicked out of Uzbekistan, substantially reducing available services there.
All of the above were examples of Gulnara kicking out fellow oligarchs from business interests which she held in partnership with others, to take the lot for herself. That has left a lot of despoiled oligarchs rather rueful. This centralisation of cash prior to a succession battle is a very high risk strategy. It is telling that Gulnara refers to my contact with Uzbek “clans”. In the Uzbek context, this does not mean tribe, but rather something more akin to regionally based mafia groupings, with whom the common people of the region have no identity. Gulnara is in the middle of a major rupture with Gafur Rakhimov, the largest mafia boss whose alliance with Karimov had been central to the regime’s stability.
I do not imagine Gulnara really believes I am connected to any of these rival mafia interests, though it is possible she is really that crazy. But plainly she is very rattled, or she would not be drawing all this attention to her business interests.
Two small points from the above. Firstly, one passage seems to reveal that the “interviewer” from Bilan was a chum of hers.
and guess who else? Exactly! Craig Murray – ex-ambassador to Uzbekistan,
I don’t think an ordinary Swiss journalist would have any idea who I was, let alone know I had called at the house.
This is one of my all time favourite tough journalist questions:
You are leading the list of most popular personalities from Central Asia in 2012 on search engines such as Google and Yandex. You are almost every day active on Twitter where you post many of your photos. How is this all related?
Final point – the first sentence of this post refers to me in the third person not because I have gone delusional, but so it works well as a retweet.
I have every hope the Karimov regime will fall in spring 2015.
Gulnara is so…..s m e a r y….. it is a wonder that she can lift one dainty foot from the sticky slime trail she leaves behind in order to step forward.
Mutabar Tadjibaeva was tortured in the Uzbek regime’s prisons for speaking the truth, and she survived only thanks to her remarkable courage and strength (and some foreign pressure that got her released). She and Gulnara are in moral terms perhaps as different as any two people on earth could possibly be, almost to the extent that they should be considered to hail from different species. For Gulnara to make ridiculous accusations against you, Craig, is as you say, just risible and crazy. But for her to dismiss Mutabar Tajdibaeva like this is truly disgusting and really fills me with rage.
P Charles and the No 2 Croc wife are crawling around the ME dictators and human rights abusers… again. Truly appalling.
Prince Charles urged to tell “truth” about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record
11 Mar 2013
He will spend three days, along with wife Camilla, in the country as part of a nine-day royal tour of the Middle East
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/prince-charles-urged-tell-truth-1755581
~~~
Did anyone see the giggling old fogey last night on Countryfile with the BBC toads like Baker, Bradbury, Henson and Craven crawling round him. HRH spoke of a legacy for our grandchildren. Quite but rather than promoting hedge laying and suchlike, he might like to encourage a world free of war and one where all people are equal and have equality of opportunity and access to resources.
Have they got that Campbell(end) fellow working for them?
‘and guess who else? Exactly! Craig Murray – ex-ambassador to Uzbekistan’…. it’s the ‘exactly’ that makes it art. Geez, if you’re gonna hire a corporate hack, at least hire one who can, you know, write…but I guess I digress.
All the best Craig, if this is their opening salvo, it’s pretty pathetic.
Craig you rascally rascal attending “den of inequities” !
This fishwife at large for UN indeed has taken a swipe at you, trouble may arise, from the fact that not many empty headed, airhead fishwives can be mustered for her “list of grave charges” that did not include you taking a leak against a lamp post in Tashkent (to keep it all in good taste) to hold sway.
It is such a pitiful state of affairs that a none thinking shallow creature such as Gulnara Karimova can in fact exploit the poor cotton picking Uzbek slave children, purely based on force and coercion.
I’m still scratching my head as to how a “professional PR firm” would choose to work with a “professional blogger” like, ahem, Craig Murray (No offense Craig!) to bring down Uzbekistan. There are definitely easier subjects to work with. Maybe she has been watching too much “Mad Men?”
But I suppose congratulations are in order.
She was sufficiently rattled by your friendly visit in Geneva, this article is saying just that, hence her moaning.
But she accuses you of breaking, entering and making video’s, surely a poor show when we compare this to the bleeding hands of young children working long days in utterly deprived circumstances.
maybe she is not getting enough… which is explainable when you realise that her whole existence is dependent on the love of gangsters such as Salim Abduvaliyev and Gafur Rakhimov.
I mean, who would want to touch her
http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&cid=4&nid=3013
I suppose swearing is not acceptable on this blog, thus I am keeping a silence. I have little more to offer than swearing on this blood thirsty bitch. Her behaviour is like cannibals preaching about value of human life.
All her interviews (and especially those which are published on Uzbek web sites and republished in Uzbek Media) are given to pocket and usually low rating and low quality foreign newspapers and magazines. It is very well known mechanism by which Uzbek media need some references to foreign sources in order to republish the news with more pomposity for local population.
Gulnara is evil, but she is quite hot. I wouldn’t mind giving her a a good shag
For what its worth, last time I stopped a night in an Istanbul hotel the only decent programme I could find on the TV was Qur’an recitation from Uzbekistan at early morning prayer time. Interesting that Turkey sourced that from its cultural roots rather than some home-grown Islamic group because it shows that within the Turkish Sufi community Uzbekistan is highly respected in spite of having been in the Soviet block and its current involvement in the rar on terror exodus from Afghanistan.
This Sufi tradition is involves dependancy on a sheikh unlike our own protestant independency of religious faith. The East in general is uncomfortable and unfamiliar with individuals challenging authority. This sideswipe from Gulnara reminds me of laborious imitations of Western culture I have seen from the Chinese. Don’t be deceived by this magazine interview format into thinking that freedom of thought and speech are not deeply detested and just the same.
Does she have assets in the UK? If so, why not sue for libel? You’d easily get a lawyer on a CFA: the case is clear.
O/T, sorry (Blame Jemand – he asked me to keep developments regarding the Swedish case against Assange in the public eye :))
A one-off demonstration outside the Sweden embassy in London – 11 Montagu Place, London W1H 2AL – in support of Julian Assange, and to demand that he be questioned by the Swedish authorities in the Ecuadorian embassy here in London, will start from 3pm on Tuesday 19th March. (I expect it will last until at least 6pm to give some people a chance to come down after work – if they work in the city, that is.)
Anyone who wants further details can email [email protected]
I’m going myself and there has been some interest expressed by people from the Swedish forum Flashback in coming over for the day to show solidarity and that many Swedish citizens also believe that the current position of their government/prosecution authority over “L’Affaire Assange” is wrong.
I suspect, given day and time, that turn-out is going to be quite small. Anyone here fancy coming along to help bump up the numbers?
Meanwhile, over in Sweden, bang goes the theory that Assange will be “safer in Sweden, or at least as ‘safe’, from extradition to the US than he is in the UK” – the Swedish government is introducing new legislation to criminalise publication of war-disclosures by foreign media as “espionage”:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.expressen.se%2Fdebatt%2Fkrigsjournalistik-maste-fa-vara-fri%2F
As you can see, even the Swedish MSM are extremely worried about this latest announcement and see it as especially dangerous for journalists.
Here’s Flashback’s full discussion of the implications for Assange of this new legal push – which should be obvious to even the most wilfully blind. Flashback sets out chapter and verse of how it will all fit in with Sweden’s extradition laws:
https://www.flashback.org/t1275257p4339
You’ll have to use Google translate for both links, sorry.
We all know which is the biggest and most powerful clan in Uzbekistan – but it is interesting to see that it is feeling a little insecure.
It is more likely that this is outrage than insecurity. In Uzbekistan ‘intruders’ like Mr Murray and Mutabar Tadjibaeva would have been shot on the spot. Goosha’s private house in centre of Tashkent has 24 hours armed security both inside and outside of the property as well as 4 metres high concrete wall.
Arbed, Thanks for details of the London demo. Again I might not be able to make it because of the dogs. But we’ll see.
Another very important demo, (as well as Arbed’s and the one at Rue Prevote, Cologny, Geneva) is this Sunday outside the US embassy (2-4 p.m.) on behalf of Guantanamo prisoners who have been on hunger strike for above a month (and MSM has not reported this).
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/03/04/guantanamo-prisoners-on-hunger-strike-against-new-guard-force-confiscating-personal-items/
Sorry I should have included this link.
https://www.facebook.com/events/542576675786639/
“P Charles and the No 2 Croc wife are crawling around the ME dictators and human rights abusers… again. Truly appalling.”
A mere THREE POSTS in and our friend MARY is already off-topic, raving on about the Royals.
This is a pity because the original blog is an interesting one. And I believe it shows considerable disrespect towards the host.
BTW, why specify that Camilla is his second wife? Is there any problem woth that? Should I refer to Mary as “the widow Mary”? No, sp once more, PLEASE LAY OFF adding irrelevant personal details about the people you’re having a go at.
THANK YOU!
What makes you think that Karimov will fall in Spring 2015, any more than Kim Wrong-Un?
Theoretically and this needs to be stressed, his 1st 7 years term will finish by January 2015. Considering that by the time he will be 2 years short of 80 and he poor heath (as speculated) and the fact that clans (mafia groups as stressed by Mr Murray) started to move forces on the after Karimov time, odds are he will not put himself forward, or if he is, he will not live much longer than 1-2 years after his ‘re-election’. Another factor to straighten this is that Karimova sisters are exporting capital in large quantities in the last couple of years and purchasing properties abroad.
However; major concern remains that for karimov anything but presidential chair is not acceptable as like millennia old history shows that in Central Asia former rulers are not much appreciated and can be easily found dead hours after giving up (or forced giving up) their thrones.
Whether he is or he is not president after 2015 does not change the fact that 2016 will be marked by similar (if not worse) brutality, corruption and slave labour. The reason is that no opposition (alternative thinking) exists at present and it will take decades for such opposition to develop.
Keep up.
My comment… connection === dictators …ME human rights abusers….
Craig’s post… connection === karimov ..dictator and human rights abuser…
Viper. Remember. Personal insult.
This is a pity because the original blog is an interesting one. And I believe it shows considerable disrespect towards the host.
BTW, why specify that Camilla is his second wife? Is there any problem woth that? Should I refer to Mary as “the widow Mary”? No, sp once more, PLEASE LAY OFF adding irrelevant personal details about the people you’re having a go at.
THANK YOU!
What with this false concern for Craig’s blog? and then trying to discern what is and is not appropriate. Craigs blog has always thrived from these cross posts, that’s why it has reached such popularity, no thanks to your pedantries.
Now to your other, more personal foible, Charles’s second wife. You must watch your blood pressure with issues that matter so much to you.
You do not know much, do you? Here in Norfolk its well known that Camilla was his wife and that he never stopped loving her, throughout his first marriage. Hopping the country houses at weekends, inviting oneself here, there and everywhere is the reality.
Sorry to have disturbed your mind, obviously full of tabloid petty foggery, with facts.
@ Mary :
and the several lines on the “giggling old fogey” on Countryfile which you were kind enough to share with us?
On topic? NO.
An insult? YES.
Your self-awarenesss : ZERO
Boomtownchav Excuse me for saying but if you are one of Frankie Boyle’s 1.3m followers on Twitter, you are being just a wee bit precious aren’t you? Even if you just read it, you have a stronger stomach than me. That was my first visit just now and some of it is just scurrilous.
https://twitter.com/frankieboyle
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jakewallissimons/100205941/its-time-to-boycott-frankie-boyle/
PS I am not in the least bit conceited. You are making false accusations.
“I have every hope the Karimov regime will fall in spring 2015.”
Why so late? Please do not wish smth crazy! We want him to fall now, these days, any minute.
Carther Rump
11 Mar, 2013 – 1:37 pm
Does she have assets in the UK? If so, why not sue for libel? You’d easily get a lawyer on a CFA: the case is clear.
Yes, she does. Companies in secretive names of people who work for her. She also has properties in Oxford where her son is attending a college.
Nevermind :
Now I’m going to ber very kind, and ceryt patient with you. Put down your copy of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion for a moment, let your wife carry on with the knitting, have a glass of water and an aspirin to hand, and listen very carefully. You will be a wiser, and therefore better, person after it.
Have you ever noticed that Craig, our host, has not opened a thread on the Royal Family or the Monarchy? Nor has he suggested that he might do so, or asked for people’s opinion on whether he should do so.
Now, do you think that’s just an oversight on old Craig’s part? Getting a bot forgetful, perhaps?
Or do you think it might just be because, in the greater scheme of things, he thinks there are more important, more pressing or more serious subjects to blog about?
This being so, what gives you and others (Mary is of course the worst culprit) the idea that you know better than Craig?
The best way of showing him some respect would be not to fawn, but to keep on-topic when he lauches a thread.
Can’t say fairer than that, can I.
*********
La vita è bella, life is good! (please show some respectà
Why not show some respect to Craig and his blog by not using multiple and fake identities?
That would be a start.
A fraud AND a hypocrite is our little HabbaTroll.
If the Resident Inviligator allows, I am posting this.
I have just seen a distressing item on BBC London News. 21 families were being evicted today (in this bitterly cold weather) with nowhere to go. The housing association’s lease has run out and the property has to be returned to the ground landlord which is the Met. It was said that this is because their budget has been cut and they have to redevelop the site, ie flog it off to the highest bidder. It will not be used for more social housing you can bet. The poor souls. Women were weeping as the contractors were boarding up the windows and doors. What a world.
http://occupynewsnetwork.co.uk/save-our-homes-haringey-say-no-to-forcing-people-out-their-home-for-profits/
PS Resident Invigilator. Vamoosh. Label here for you.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12567713@N00/2245586106/
@ Viktor Tashkentskiy:
When you say her son is attending an Oxford college do you mean a college of the university? If so, it might be interesting to know how he got there, in particular whether or not Karimova donated any money to the college. Since admissions are handled by the colleges and the colleges are financially independent from the university there is always scope for “encouraging” the admission of someone who would not make it in on academic ability alone. Easily checked…just needs a FOI request…
Viktor Tashkentskiy
Thanks. Can you get any more details on her assets in the UK? If you don’t want to post here, the contact button at top of page will send me an email/