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.
Anon @ 8:10
I dunno. The Jesuits either feigned a liberation theology, or they have been kept out of the Papacy because of it.
This guy, for instance……..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Óscar_Romero
I think I’ll celebrate the New Pope’s Ascendancy with Malt(a) liquor.
This is an interesting little play, by Sandi Toksvig, starring Stephen Fry, Stellan Skarsgård, Zoë Wanamaker and Hayley Atwell.
There’s clearly a lot of symbolism going on. I wonder what it all means.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34264.htm
Ben,
Wolf Blitzer (talking to CNN Pope epert type guy) on CNN a few seconds ago.
Q: “In America we see Jesuits as …a liberal group – is that true?
A: “Well it is true that’s how they are perceived…”
🙂
“Habeus Franciscum”
LOL
Anon; At first I perceived it as ‘that’s how they’re peeved’.
Technicolour
13 Mar, 2013 – 7:18 pm
“Doug Scorgie: still not sure who is being hypocritical, who is being misinformed and who is being used; but thanks for detail. As for the survey, you didn’t answer my question, but that’s OK.”
Technicolour,
If you are still not sure who is being hypocritical then perhaps you don’t understand simple language and logic. There are plenty of adolescent blogs to suit your IQ.
“As for the survey, you didn’t answer my question, but that’s OK.”
I don’t answer loaded questions because they are… well… loaded questions.
I think the hoorah about the black/white smoke has more to do with choosing a name, than it does which pedophile they prop up for the inevitable rotten tomato parade…..
DS: No, I am still not sure who is being hypocritical. Charles and Camilla? I don’t know them, or know how well informed they are. The BBC? Not doing what we pay them to do, definitely, but hypocritical?
And you don’t want to answer a question which asks if being under an oppressive regime might affect people’s answers to public questions. It does state the bleeding obvious, I agree.
re the new Holy father :
there we go!
Rather recently I offered to make a bet with one of the few sane participants in this blog that Mary would be making unpleasant noises or dropping nasty hints about the new Pope within 7 days of his election.
Being a wise man, he didn’t take me up on my offer.
Well, it’ s good job he didn’t, because – surprise, surprise – it didn’t take Mary even a couple of hours to start spitting poison.
Likewise, of course, several of the other usual suspects.
What a shower!
*********
La vita è bella, life is good! (ed il Papa è buono)
I said:
My word. He’s young. He’s only 76! Bergoglio to be known as Pope Francis. From Buenos Aires.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Bergoglio
I think our friend above suffers from a sense of humour deficit.
~~~
From the Wikipedia entry, he seems to be a modest man and has a lifestyle which is to be admired – public transport, cooking for himself and living in a flat. That will change of course. His views on abortion, contraception, same sex marriage and homosexuality are traditional and will not please everybody.
@Scorgie
“Reporters Without Borders is not an organisation interested in truthful reporting,”
So none of this is truthful
http://en.rsf.org/saudi-arabia.html
http://en.rsf.org/syria-press-tv-reporter-shot-dead-in-27-09-2012,43451.html
http://en.rsf.org/israel.html
http://en.rsf.org/united-kingdom.html
http://en.rsf.org/united-states.html
So say nothing of RWB supporting Wikileaks in the past.
Clearly a number of people owe RWB an apology for the manner in which they have rubbished and smeared its work.
When will some people realise that human rights are universal and that a human rights abuse is a human rights abuse whoever it is perpetrated by. Perhaps some of us need to go back to our Orwell and Koestler and understand where all this ends justify the means rubbish gets us.
I have no problem with people reading their news from whatever source that they want – all I suggest is that they don’t suspend their critical faculties when reading all sources and try and look at a few perspectives. The fact that they can do so in this country is something that we should recognise that many others elsewhere don’t have.
RD: “The fact that they can do so in this country is something that we should recognise that many others elsewhere don’t have.”
Perhaps some should also recognise that the MSM in this country can say this;
“The boy is slight in build and was chased and beaten by burly men. Their actions were shameless and shocking.”
about this; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-21725554
but will never say the same about this;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox7dEq7vI4Y&list=FLXt3Jtv6OH0Z5WtTTOMIqhg&index=93
(BTW are you ready now to answer that question about Assange that you kept avoiding ?0
Macky
But then the MSM here did say the video was shocking http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/feb/12/military.iraq
And the whistleblower gave it to the News of the World who made it publicly available.
Are critical videos of the Iranian regime made so freely available there – I think not.
I wasn’t aware that I had avoided a genuine question on Assange from you – a rhetorical or loaded one possibly – or one asking me to express an opinion on a court case where the full facts are not available. I think you will find that I answer rather more genuine questions than most people here.
That’s it, Habbakuk. Obedience, always obedience, and one day you too may get to kiss his holy ring.
I’m sure even you might agree that bad stuff often happens in the darkness of secrecy and unquestioning loyalty.
Herbie, thanks for the Toksvig play. I also felt sure it was symbolic of something – perhaps the intricacies and betrayals inherent in modern relationships? Clearly ‘the man’ (and what a giveaway of a name) had nicked Hayley Attwell’s lipstick, for example. And I don’t think the fact that the lipstick was red – the colour, of course, of hearts and roses – was accidental, do you? He stole her heart, played games with her life (literally, here, cards); and flirted with both Zoe Wannamaker and Stephen Fry which, on a very real level, shows the temptations and pain of the animus/anima, and why British casting agents need to get out more. And then he leaves her, alone, in an empty room – or should I say, with an empty womb? Fascinating.
Not sure what all that economics stuff was about in the middle?
Thanks for that, Tech
I was just really just wondering about the Andalusian horse, its entrance and exit, her smoking again after giving them up, the card game, and the other symbols as they relate to the economic discussions they were having.
er, I was being frivolous. Horse = nature ruled and diminished by force; smoking = toxic exploitative habit foisted by west on ‘developing’ countries, also self-destruction leading to/showing complicity with active destruction of others; card game = his deck, everyone’s lying; the way the world is (or is seen by such people to be).
Otherwise, yes – eerily stately and measured. Nothing new, as such, but strange to see it set out like that. And thought explanation of IMF/WTO v fine – always reassuring to know that other people have wrestled with those acronyms.
(serious) thanks
Not very interesting Uzbek fact I learned today;
It is only one of two double land-locked countries in the world.
“Bergoglio signed a joint statement denouncing terrorism while many others blamed Iran for the terrible act.”
Thanks for that Mark, he is also haunting the powerful Roman curate for being a communicator, a spark between working groups who are actually making decisions.
As was just proffered by a news service, he will consolidate Ratzinger tomorrow, dare I translate this into a ‘please retire and keep quiet’ visit.
My view is that this appointment of a popular man who pulls strings and connects people is still a very conservative and political decision by the Roman curate, yearning for an Italian pope for years, they know that he will be working hard for the next 15-20 years before his mortal coil turns him into Zebedee.
The Roman curate is seen to be fine with an ‘outsider, a Latin American working class choice’ and a traditional to boot. His conservatism will clash/coordinate with past working group habits, sort of demand that tackling the issues can not be pushed ahead anymore.
he’ll talk, that what Frances did, talk, and he will advance issues. Which way is to be seen, but that the Vatican is buying apartments for its priests above Rom’s biggest gay sauna to the tune of 20 million, plus, euro’s will no doubt be bringing extreme penance to another level.
I’ll give him a cautious chance, if he can be both, traditional but also a working cog who knows how the catholic hierarchy works and wants to set libertarian theology into a historic frame, not rejected but discussed and enabled, he could be a breath of fresh air.
Just saying
Viva Las Malvinas….
I don’t think you will have to wait that long. I understand IK is ill and is losing control daily in the manner you suggest. I also understand that GK is very much in the mode of getting as much out of UZ as she can before the regime tips.
what encouraging news Gary, thank you. What will this mean for the multinational agencies, NATO, use of amenities etc., will this be opportune enough?
off for a snooze.
@Uzbek in The UK
“She lives in different normative dimensions. Good or bad for her is measured by the number of zeros on ones account and influence one has over politics. Blood, human sacrifice, starvation, war is out of her normative outlook.”
Agreed. It will certainly be interesting to see how things play out now. The theft must be addictive, but now that more people understand her modus operandi it will be harder to do it. Also with a record of cheating people, direct foreign investment should dry up thus exacerbating the forex shortage.
Two things which may be of interest are:
1. An article in the FT called “Uzbekistan: The leading lady” on 7th March 2013 by Courtney Weaver and Neil Buckley
2. The comments in Russian here by “half2life”
http://www.bilan.ch/economie-les-plus-de-la-redaction/gulnara-karimova-des-adversaires-ont-associe-mon-nom-cette-affaire
I am beginning to wonder if the shut-down of Gulnara’s Artel business (combined white goods retailer and white goods assembly plant) is related to forex shortages caused by the freezing of Gulnara’s forex funds by the Swiss and the Swedes. The arbitration award for the seizure of Metal-Tech’s Uzbek subsidiary is due any time soon. That could give the leadership more problems.
“I think our friend above suffers from a sense of humour deficit.”
The same could be said of you, if you recall ..
“Could we have please have less of the nit picking here – spelling, typos etc”
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/02/voice-of-russia-interview/#comment-395373
A sense of humour is not always appreciated around here.
Mary, 13 Mar 9:37pm
“His views on abortion, contraception, same sex marriage and homosexuality are traditional and will not please everybody.”
. . . .
By “traditional”, you mean he is consistent with positions established in the distant past. I’m not going to suggest whether those positions are right or wrong, but I will suggest that if a position is believed to be right, then any moves to change it do not make sense. My views on murder and theft are quite traditional – any reason to change them? The clear implication is that traditions are never revisited to establish a contemporary validity. That is not true of the Catholic church. They are quite adept at flip-flopping when they need to. Note their changed positions on Galileo, Evolution and Jewish deicide.
But on the above quoted social issues, I ask – is church policy supposed to be drafted on a democratic principle of trying to PLEASE most people, let alone everybody?
On what basis should the church accomodate modern social demands? Because they are popular? Because they are good? Because they please? Because they’ve done it before?
The Catholic religion is not a democracy. It is a dictatorship where God is the aloof president and the pope is the prime minister.
. . . .
The Church thinks in centuries, not decades ..
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/806/a_pope_who_thinks_in_centuries.aspx
Pleasure is the only intrinsic good ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism
What is pleasant is (morally) good ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalistic_fallacy
Change for its own sake ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_novelty
Jemand : excellent points (06h54).
The point might also be made that the frailty (because they are human) of the human beings making up the church – including the hieracrchy – does not invalidate the institution itself.
(To give an example which heathen readers might better understand : the fact that chief executive David Nicholson appears not to be entirely fit for purpose does not invalidate the entire National Health Service)
I would not bother your head. I think you are assuming I support the Catholic church. I belong to no church just as I belong to no political party or grouping.
It is all theatricals after all to keep the people slumbering. Why else have the corporate media had large teams of reporters and and a countless number of Catholic commentators watching to see what colour smoke comes out of a chimney and then who appears from behind a window? Did you notice the skivvies hanging a massive shiny white cloth from the edge of the balcony as if to emphasize the drama of the occasion?
The BBC even had Katya Adler in the crowd. She normally reports from the entity in the eastern Meditteranean, that is the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’!
What a repellent website Jemand links to.
http://www.citizenwarrior.com/2009/05/terrifying-brilliance-of-islam.html
eg The Terrifying Brilliance of Islam
Monday undated
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED why millions of Muslim men are dedicated to killing Americans? Or why so many are willing to blow themselves up to kill Israelis? Or why they are so committed to blowing up random people in Bali, London, Madrid, etc.?
Islamic supremacists are doing this all over the world, attacking Westerners and their own fellow Muslims alike. Why?
Because of a doctrine. A doctrine is a collection of ideas. These could be customs, words, beliefs, etc. A religion is not a single idea; it is a collection of ideas. The collection of ideas that make up the religion of Islam makes Muslims behave and feel as they do.
/…
Sky News are employing Alistair Bruce in Rome this morning. What is there left to say for God’s sake? He gushed for England on the Jubilee. Note he is a contributor to Murdoch’s Fox News and supports the very overworked youngest royal scion in his duties. LOL
http://www.silversea.com/life-onboard/enrichment/guest-lecturers/?staff=810655