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.
@ Jives :
All this talk about multiple and fake identities has got me thinking – you wouldn’t be Never-a-mind, would you? Funny how you replied to my post addressed to him within a few minutes (not the first time either, and vice-versa…)
Is there one Eminence less than I had thought…?
**********
La vita è bella, life is good! (expose the fakes)
OT
Habbabkuk repeatedly accuses others of posting off-topic. I thought it would be interesting to check his record in this regard:
He has made 15 posts today on 3 threads.
Number of posts attacking other posters = 15
Number of posts on topic = 0
There was noticeable dirruption on all three threads following his appearance.
times of posting and person attacked:
11 Mar, 2013 – 3:29 pm
Nevermind
11 Mar, 2013 – 3:12 pm
Mary
11 Mar, 2013 – 3:07 pm
Nevermind
11 Mar, 2013 – 11:50 am
Nevermind
11 Mar, 2013 – 11:48 am
Nevermind
11 Mar, 2013 – 11:46 am
Nevermind
11 Mar, 2013 – 11:36 am
Brian Fujisan :
11 Mar, 2013 – 11:29 am
Mary
11 Mar, 2013 – 8:33 am
Mary
11 Mar, 2013 – 8:23 am
Brian Fujisan
11 Mar, 2013 – 6:38 pm
Fred
11 Mar, 2013 – 6:57 pm
Mary
11 Mar, 2013 – 3:57 pm
MARY
11 Mar, 2013 – 5:01 pm
Mary
11 Mar, 2013 – 6:28 pm
Nevermind
Sorry, make that:
Number of posts attacking other posters = 16
Number of posts on topic = 0
It’s hard keeping up with him.
A Node; We’re giving negative attention to those in dire need. As soon as that well dries, the critter will seek resources, elsewhere.
@ Node :
just to coplete your admirable survey, how many of my posts are in response to attacks on me?
@ Node :
suspecting bad faith on your part, I thought I’d do a spot check on one of the posts of mine you cited.
Here’s what I found.
Fred posts at 14h20 saying “we know the security services and the police infiltrate radical groups as a matter of routine”.
On which I commented as follows (18h38): “I should jolly well hope so. THey would be failing in their duty and not fit for purpose if they didn’t”.
Can you point me to the “attack” involved in my comment? Thank you.
No doubt if I could be bothered to check your other “examples” I should find the same degree of….shall I say dishonesty?
************
La vita è bella, life is good! (beware false statistics)
Thanks to Craig and all other Uzbek commentators, my grasp of these issues is embarrassingly limited and I am finding these threads highly informative and useful.
Is it likely Karimova will just be replaced by another Stooge when his term expires?
Ben, you’re right. He craves attention and I’m wrong to give it.
Those statistics are pretty damning, though.
I have said it for a long time that it is very obvious that he/she was sent here for the sole purpose of disrupting the threads and causing the blog to be held in disrepute. An unpleasant atmosphere has also been created. No wonder Jon the remaining moderator thinks the way he does.
BTW, A Node, that was from the “As big as terroriism thread”.
Here’s another, from the “NHS in meltdown thread”. You cite my post of O8h23 but forget to mention that it was in reply to this charmer from Brian Fujisan ;
“Whatever happened to your concern for Craig’s health, you little C%nt”
I suppose you’re relying on the fact that few people will bother to check your claims.
You are a fool and a liar.
“Those statistics are pretty damning, though.”
Indeed. But the blowback is inevitable.
She writes atrociously. Seriously, it’s borderline gibberish. I distrust anyone who can’t string a sentence together. It doesn’t have to be Milton, just vaguely coherent.
In fairness, she’s probably bonkers.
Mary :
have you ever really asked yourself why most of my comments are addressed to just a handful of the score or so of regular contributors to this blog?
have a think about it and if you come up with any insights please share them with me and all the other readers.
You asked the question about yourself –You answer it Habbabkuk.
Tell us and all the other readers.
“It doesn’t have to be Milton”
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixgc_FGam3s
Getting back to the topic – there are some reports that Bekzod Akhmedov has been arrested in Russia and been returned to Uzbekistan – if true by guess is that the Karimov clan may well have been forced to bend the knee to the rather larger Russin clan that controls MTS and Akhmedov has been offered up as peace offering. Perhaps the clan leader is keen to strengthen his foreign operations given that the long term prospects for the Syrian branch are none too rosy. Mario Puzo is an excellent guide to understanding politics in this part of the world btw.
http://littleskylark.com/blog/the-media-learned-of-the-capture-of-general-director-of-uzbekistan-daughters-of-the-mts/
from her blog “the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (where I also did a lecturing stint),”
For some reason she omits the rather pertinent fact that this is a state controlled university in Tashkent. But I’m sure her audience gave a deafening tound of applause at the end of each lecture.
@ Crab :
you must learn to read carefully, Crab.
Once you’ve done so, you’ll understand that the question was addressed to Mary, not to myself.
Not that I’m expecting an answer, of course, but it did seem fair to give her the opportunity. Feel free to stand in for her if you wish, Crab, but you’ll really have to try harder if you want to be of service.
One tip for essaying an answer if you’re up for it : think about whether there are any significant differences between Craig’s posts and the comments from the Eminences which those posts attract.
Shame on the BBC, Correra and Gardner who tried to do the same but failed. Vile people.
‘The BBC’s closeness to the Home Office has come under fire after the corporation’s security correspondent Gordon Corera accepted a formal role at a behind-closed-doors counter-terrorism event.
The Security and Policing Exhibition 2013, which opens in Farnborough today, aims to showcase and sell Britain’s security expertise to overseas governments.
Delegates from dozens of states – including some with questionable human rights records – will attend seminars and speeches from leading UK police officers, Whitehall officials and ministers.
While the Home Office has blocked all press requests to attend the conference, citing “national security”, it emerged yesterday that Mr Corera is due to chair a masterclass on cyber-security this afternoon. His role was only confirmed by the Home Office after if initially claimed that no journalists had been invited.’
/..
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/bbc-impartiality-under-fire-for-correspondents-role-in-security-summit-8529962.html
No surprise that a cathedral offered to host the nasty bunch for their dinner. They will do anything for money nowadays as their congregations die off. At least someone there had a conscience and responded to the protests.
The conference http://www.securityandpolicing.co.uk/files/2013/03/Security-and-Policing-Website-Agenda07.03.13.pdf
The exhibitors http://www.securityandpolicing.co.uk/exhibitors/exhibitor-list-2013/
Yeah, I know. Where’s his hand, and why is she in her jammies.
https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/4046ec0547325209833b7e225adb120b/tumblr_mg2u2fBMBG1rpsw9to1_400.jpg
But, Bashar and Saif were buddies with the great and good too and look what happened to them.
Don’t hold your breath that anything will change in Bahrain.
News story
Joint Bahrain-UK Statement on Inaugural Meeting of Joint Working Group
Organisations:
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Published:11 March 2013
Minister:Alistair Burt MP
World location:Bahrain.
During his visit to Bahrain, FCO Minister Alistair Burt took part in the inaugural meeting of the UK-Bahrain Joint Working Group.
After the meeting, Alastair Burt and Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa released the following statement:
“His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Bahrain, today hosted the inaugural meeting of the Bahrain-UK Joint Working Group, welcoming to Manama Mr Alistair Burt MP, British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East and North Africa.”
“Underlining the close and open relationship between Bahrain and the UK, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa and Mr Burt, together with ministers and senior officials from several Bahraini ministries, discussed a wide range of bilateral and regional issues, including cooperation on key trade and investment opportunities. Co-operation and assistance on security and counter-terrorism also featured, as did Bahrain’s reform programme, including UK support on the implementation of the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry Report and UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review. Officials from both governments will work together, monitoring and evaluating areas of co-operation and assistance, between now and the next meeting, expected within six months.”
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-bahrain-uk-statement-on-inaugural-meeting-of-joint-working-group
I thought I might re-post this little insight into A Node’s mindset, with the aim of “letting him damn himself out of his own mouth”, so to speak.
Following a pertinent (albeit sarcastically phrased) post from one Giles on the “Oh dear new Labour’s control of BBC Scotland must be curbed” , A Node responds in the following well-reasoned, non-ad hominem manner (10 March, 13h58):
“@ Giles 10 Mar,2013 – 12:02pm
As long as there are people like you visiting this blog, I will remain
suspicious of people’s motives for posting comments.”
Precious!
**********
La vita è bella, life is good!
As a sometime contributer, I would have to say that Habbakuk is now being purely reductive.
Habbabkuk here is even less useful than an ice cream aircraft carrier. Host should follow Churchill’s and scuttle it. Ban for disruptive trolling.
I can’t believe he is still posting this hate filled drivel.
Jives, apologies, for he does not know what he is doing, so chuffed to be you, really…..
Habkeincock does not know of the petulance of his beloved Royals and I fully understand why Craig does not swipe at them having sworn an oath once, it is commendable.
But he does not censor what we know here in Norfolk to be true blue practise, and you get to know a bit when you install chimney pieces to boost ego’s.
Thanks for that picture Herbie, she does look a little ravaged, holding on to Clinton for dear life, she must be craving recognition.
A node, your stats are great, a daily troll tally might be the way to go with increasing popularity of this blog. Must be hard to try and be kind whilst harbouring thoughts of destruction.
Habby, we are getting used to you, stick around, we are always looking for a monthly mascot. I’m truly impressed with your stickability, which leaves to say, why would you possibly sit here and play the school master, if you have no agenda or ulterior motive to fuel your hearth.
It must be so hard to make a living as a stooge these days.
A nice new tag for you Habbabkuk
“bella horrida bella”
I’m sure you know where I’d like you to stick it.
Hey Habbabkuk
One of your mates made the news.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-21745915
OT (I hope):
‘If Chávez was not murdered by the US, the CIA wasn’t doing its job’—’Rogue State’ author William Blum http://is.gd/SKC1yw
But I also have to say that the alternately vitriolic/vicious/scatological attacks on him/her (Habbakuk)do not reflect well on this board either.
This statement: “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.” is key to Gulnara’s peculiar attack.
7, Chemin de la Prévôté
1223 Cologny, Switzerland
http://goo.gl/maps/8NT5h
Of course a ‘drone’ comes to mind 😉