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.
OT
Richard ‘Liberal Defence of Murder’ Seymour & 71 others resign over handling of SWP rape allegations:
‘One is simply astounded by how inadequate, corrupt, stupid, narrow-mindedly bureaucratic and delusional the leadership of the SWP has proven to be. It is not just that having covered up serious sexual allegations, and so disastrously failed at least two female comrades, they can admit no fault. It is not just the absurd, scholastic, apolitical explanations they give for doing so, or the tragic retreat into bunkered dogma that has accompanied this. It is not just that they lie with impunity. It is not just that they ducked a real debate, with their absurd rules limiting faction speakers at aggregates, and their gerrymandering of conference. It is not just that even now many of them are desperate to get the accused back into the leadership as soon as can conveniently be arranged. It is not just that their response to the most recent allegations by a female ex-member was to effectively dismiss her as a liar, without investigating further. It is that, having done a Jonestown, they think they’ve just triumphed.’
http://is.gd/sAUCem
Might some fine contributors to these discussions be wasting their time reading certain posts? Life is too short to read nonsense, and one quickly learns the names of those who have nothing to contribute. Simple then, simply to stop reading these people and any replies directed to them. Ignore them – even if they don’t go away, nobody will be listening.
OT
‘Brilliant.’ Carne Ross, Iraq whistleblower & Craig’s colleague in the FCO maritime department during the ‘Gulf War,’ highly recommends this shock-&-awe stock-take by David Gardner in the FT:
http://t.co/AiKO6N8h0O
Right you are, Arbed – keep it in the public eye 🙂
And the same goes for (Goo)Goosha*. Let’s take some of the burden of attention off of Craig and post reminders about the nature of this toxic, narcissistic monster on other blogs and forums. Is anyone good with producing YouTube videos? It would be good to mix a few home truths among the psychotic music videos.
* “Goosha : A female that can projectily ejaculate.”
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=goosha
Goosha’s music video. Feel free to post comments (acct required)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8yhSgtQ7DY
A floating island right enough.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk
Code name and spelling
The project’s code name seems to have been consistently (mis)spelled Habbakuk in the Admiralty and Government documents at the time. This may in fact have been Pyke’s own error, as at least one early document apparently written by him (though unsigned) spells it that way. (However, post-war publications by people concerned with the project [e.g., Perutz and Goodeve] all restore the proper [one ‘B’ and three ‘K’s] spelling.) The name is a biblical reference to the project’s ambitious goal: “…be utterly amazed, for I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” (Habakkuk 1:5, NIV)
The ‘RI’ started off here last November using a different spelling to the one in use now.
“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”
Technicolour, you won’t be surprised to read that I rather agree with your comment :).
The degree to which my own comments are vitriolic/vicious/scatological as compared to the responses they elicit bears careful examination and you may have done this (although there’s no particular reason why you should do so, of course.
I myself draw certain conclusions from the fact when – to take but one example (there are probably better ones)- I endeavour to tease out the position of a commenter on the utility of referenda (eg why someone who supports the holding of a referendum on Scottish independence should condemn the holding of a referendum in the Falklands), the person to whom I addressed the question remains silent while of the other commenters who decide to answer on behalf of the addresssee perhaps one (if I’m lucky) will provide some sort of explanation whereas the others prefer to send abusive and accusatory ‘replies’. Not to mention the ‘drowning-out’ technique which some appear to have been essaying recently, which I can assure you won’t be successful.
If you were in a face to face conversation, you’d probably expect to have your opinions challenged on occasion and you’d probably feel called to justify or explain your opinion. Although it’s easier to avoid doing so on an internet forum, why should matters be any different here?
Anyway, whatever. As another commenter (perhaps CE or Resident Dissident) said recently, I’m happy to leave judgement to the founder of this blog, in whose power it lies (and rightly so) to bar me from the forum if he feels that I consistently overstep the mark with the aim of bringing this blog into disrepute (or worse).
*********
La vita è bella, life is good!
I suppose my line would be
The man who said ‘No’. Well there were three of them actually. ‘Get them off these islands immediately’.
Result: Of 1,517 votes cast in the two-day referendum – on a turnout of more than 90% – 1,513 were in favour, while just three votes were against.
What a farce.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21750909
Another scandal from the Poison Gove mismanaged Department for Education. He’s piling our taxes into his pet academies yet the unfortunate children going to the schools that should have been rebuilt or repaired under the NuLabour Building Schools for the Future project, which he immediately scrapped after taking office, are suffering appalling and dangerous working conditions.
The school shown in the video is 9 miles away from Gove’s office. Perhaps he should visit to see the state of the place. He should take his hard hat though.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21712941#
Mary, it’s reminiscent of the Soviet elections. A farce is a farce which ever way you view it. It was a foregone conclusion. However, there were I believe, 1672 eligible to vote. Obviously the other near 9.2% did not feel it was in their interest to vote.
“The man who said ‘No’. Well there were three of them actually. ‘Get them off these islands immediately’.
Result: Of 1,517 votes cast in the two-day referendum – on a turnout of more than 90% – 1,513 were in favour, while just three votes were against.
What a farce.”
Can you indicate why you think the referendum was a farce?
Can you assure us that had there not been a referendum, you would not have critised the government for not holding one?
Thank you.
Mark Golding,
I like your ‘drone’ idea. But better yet for the property to be sold for 25 mil and for the money to be returned to the poor people in Uzbekistan. There are hundreds of schools and hospitals and hundreds of large and small communal services installations (that supply hot water and electricity) to be refurbished.
This bit of her blog is priceless:
“…where the waves of negativity suddenly were coming in en masse – always out of nowhere, as if obeying an invisible wand, and obviously well-paid from significant sources. However, over time I realized that when you are confronted it actually proves that you mean something and in a way it is a gratifying experience. When you start working on something really meaningful, when you are bringing the difference, these forms of resistance, counteraction or, shall I say, petty sabotage become a merely casual routine of your life.”
Had I not read ‘Murder In Samarkand’ I would actually believe this is a powerful and gorgeous lady being wrongly accused of heinous crimes.
Resident Dissident
I will not be surprised if Akhmedov was returned from Moscow. He was more important to karimova then to MTS. Rumours say that he was not only head of uzbek based MTS but was also involved in other financial operations with Karimova including illegal sale of uzbek gold. Akhmedov knows a lot more then was made public about Gulnara and it was in her best interests to bring him back. As for MTS it is more likely that they have been paid some ransom for this exchange.
MTS tried to organise PR scandal against Karimova but it did not go far and was stopped by kremlin before it went too far. As there are some other (and even more profitable and more strategically important) Russian projects in Uzbekistan kremlin decided not to push further and alienate Karimova. The fact that some Russian oligarchs were involved in karimova’s money laundering operations played crucial role in Akhmedov’s silence. Suggestions were made that some Russian oligarchs of uzbek origin including Alisher Usmanov (who is having investments in UK is now concerned for his reputation) got involved in convincing kremlin to strop Karimova gate.
That is the nature of business in former USSR.
CE
It is very likely that Karimov will be replaced by another him alike when he is dead, or near dead. There is no opposition (by which I mean organised group of people who think significantly different) and there are no mechanisms that would insure any positive changes in Uzbekistan immediately after karimov. Whole power structure is tailor made for Karimov and ensures his supremacy in whole aspects of political life.
Another important factor that was never stressed on this blog (at least not by Mr Murray) is that despite decades of soviet nation building in Central Asia and in Uzbekistan in particular most Central Asians and Uzbeks in particular associate themselves with local tribes and local regions more than with nations within national border states. Localism is not just alive is more alive than nationalism in Central Asia and it is argued (sometimes fairly) that only authoritarian power structure would allow current nation states to continue to exist and otherwise interethnic and intraethnic conflicts are imminent which would lead to many deaths. Economic underdevelopment of the region and its geographic isolation from liberal centres (such as Europe) are another factors adding to continuation of authoritarian rule in Central Asia. And where there is authoritarian ruler there are corruption, money laundering and all those things in which gulnara excels.
1st April 2010, CM blog Pentagon $860 million contracts to GK.
That US money wouldn’t need laundering then?
Since the Falklands referendum has been raised on this thread (in addition to the existence of a previous entire thread on the subject of the Scottish referendum),I should be interested to teasing out further contributors’ thoughts on the entire question of referenda.
Let me do this in the form of two questions.
1/. Given that majority opinion here is that a referendum on Scottish independence is desirable, would the contributors belonging to that majority also be in favour of a referendum in Northern Ireland on the question of either (1) independence for Northern Ireland or (2) incorporation of Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland?
2/. Given, on the one hand, the existence of popular referenda (Volksinitiative)as part of the Swiss political system and, on the other, the existence in the UK of the system whereby petitions to Parliament which attract a minimum numbers of signatures lead (or perhaps can lead, I’m not certain) to a debate in Parliament – and given, furthermore, thaat we are occasionally asked on this blog to sign up for petitions on various issues – would regular contributors to this forum support the idea of introducing Swiss-style popular refernda into the UK political system?
Halibabacus and other war heroes of the Falklands war
I am puzzled how starting from Uzbekistan you managed to land on the Malvinas?? Do you want to grow cotton there or what? Sounds pretty stupid to me but perhaps I am expecting too much of the habbakukian “intelectual firepower” from you. I should have perhaps informed you that I have already different plans. Like Balfour, I have compiled a declaration whereby the Khazars of Golders Green, who for some unknown reasons believe that they are descendents of the king David, would be given the right to settle without any limitations in the Falklands and drill for oil in the surrounding waters as they please. I have checked my school atlas and Khazars have indeed no country of their own and Falklands seem to me to be one of the few places on earth without people. This could be perhaps the first time in living history that Great Brittain gives land away that consideres to be its property.
@ Karel (11h59) :
“This could be perhaps the first time in living history that Great Brittain gives land away that consideres to be its property.”
Although this is not in living memory (I presume you meant to say memory rather than history)), there is actually at least relatively recent example: that of the cession of the Ionian islands to the newly constituted state of Greece in the middle of the 19th century.
Uzbek in the UK,
Thanks for that information.
————————-
Habba,
1) I support a referendum for the whole island of Ireland on it’s reunification.
2) No I do not favour the idea of popular referenda, I think they should only be used in constitutional matters of great importance.
Halibabacus,
thanks for being so observant. But what is this nonsense of yours about “Ionian Islands”? Or do you want to insinuate that these islands were somehow presented by YHW to the King of England?
O/T, but I’m sure readers of Craig’s blog will have a lot of fun in here…
Wikileaks’ UK Global Intelligence Files (Stratfor) release:
396,337 emails from US intelligence contractor Stratfor: http://is.gd/ZMMrgL
1,245 sensitive emails from US intelligence contractor #Stratfor http://is.gd/SdUHcn
201 very sensitive emails from US intelligence contractor Stratfor http://is.gd/zLKtAV
Two stupid referenda…
Interesting that the British authorities hold a status referendum in the Falklands (Malvinas) and allow the Scottish government to hold an independence referendum in Scotland.
The results in both are foregone conclusions.
The result in the Malvinas (Falklands) was always going to be an overwhelming ‘yes’ to British rule, and the result in Scotland will be a resounding ‘yes’ to staying in the Union.
Meanwhile, no vote is held in one part of the UK where most people would very probably vote in favour of leaving Britain.
I refer to Shetland.
Which authorities, in any country, ever held a vote that might trouble them?
PS. Above links have a search engine on them – everything’s searchable by key word. Enjoy!
What’s the British-Uzbek Society?
Its people seem to be very welcome at the Karimov regime’s embassy in London.
Its director Richard Moir lives with and has a business relationship with Corinne Souza.
What the fuck is that about?
Habeas corpus
You are indeed in a different league
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Doomed along with your sponsors
The essence of the anti-referendum position is that Britain’s claim to sovereignty is a dodgy one – does not come out particularly well from historical scrutiny.
‘Accident of empire’, the subject of ‘Britain’s last imperial war’. Nothing to be considered on the other side? Like, for example, the wishes of the inhabitants of those islands? No, they do not figure, except as a mere 3,000 people who, along with 500,000 sheep, are very expensive to defend.
Why the wishes of the Falkland Islanders, their right to self-determination in fact, should count for so little in the moral balance, and an accident of empire be regarded as carrying little weight when an accident of geography appears to carry much, you’ll have to figure out for yourself; Port Stanley ‘in artificial isolation from the country nearest to it’ is all you get. That the people of the Falklands have a certain right in this matter is of less importance, apparently, than the yearning of a stretch of land for other land in geographical proximity to it.
Still struggling to discern exactly what Mary found so ‘farcical’ about all this?
@ Donald (13h09) :
“Which authorities, in any country, ever held a vote that might trouble them?”
Well, the Swiss government for a start (cf the last one on capping high salaries).
On your other point : I still fail to see why the result of a referendum being a foregone conclusion – and I wouldn’t be so certain with the Scottish one – should somehow invalidate the mechanism or device as such. At a very minimum, holdong a referendum absolves a government from the charge – which would inevitably be made in the absence of a referebdum – that it is acting in an arbitrary manner vis à vis its citizens?
@ Karel :
“But what is this nonsense of yours about “Ionian Islands”?”
Sorry, I don’t follow you. Are you questioning my use of the words “Ionian islands” (as your use of quotation amrks might indicate) or are you disputing that they were handed over by Britain to Greece in the middle of the 19th century (as might be indicated by your use of “nonsense”?
Happy to give more detail if you’d clarify your apparent disagreement.
@ CE – jak sie pan miewa? Pan napisal/ :
@ “Habba,
1) I support a referendum for the whole island of Ireland on it’s reunification.
2) No I do not favour the idea of popular referenda, I think they should only be used in constitutional matters of great importance.”
Thanks for that. To tease matters out even further :
re 1/. in such a case, do you feel that the referendum on Scottish independence should similarly involve the whole of the UK and not just Scotland/Scots?
re 2/. What, essentially, are your reasons for that position (bearing in mind the possibility of petitions to Parliament and the other element I mentioned in my original post)?
Hallibabacus,
can you be a bit more like a scholar to be more in line with your pretences. I guess that you find this cumbesome but please try to improve the quality of you posted snippetts, so that we can all benefit and you will have less time and energy to bark at Mary. I would also suggest that you may try to be more meticulous about the words you through around. Can you please specify, which “Ionian Islands” (they are many of them) you have in mind and when how they were acquired by the UK?