Amid lethal protests in Kazakhstan yesterday, Tony Blair confronted renewed scrutiny over his dealings with the nation’s regime.
Avenue battles have gripped Kazakhstan after demonstrations over gasoline costs escalated into violent clashes between protesters and police.
A lot of the anger was directed at former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who dominated over Kazakhstan for 3 many years till 2019, and who continued to wield immense energy after he stepped down as president.
His authoritarian regime confronted worldwide criticism for human rights abuses and in 2011 Sir Tony’s consulting enterprise Tony Blair Associates (TBA) took on a contract to advise the Kazakh authorities.
Tony Blair is dealing with renewed scrutiny over his dealings with the Kazakhstan regime
Pictured: Then-PM Blair meets Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev at Downing St in 2006
The controversial deal noticed Sir Tony face accusations that he had helped Mr Nazarbayev to ‘spin’ a bloodbath which noticed safety forces kill a minimum of 14 throughout a protest over wages.
The previous British prime minister suggested the Kazakh chief on learn how to take care of questions from the Western media in regards to the 2011 shootings, and recommended passages to be inserted right into a speech Mr Nazarbayev was giving at Cambridge College in 2012.
In a letter, he stated: ‘These occasions, tragic although they had been, mustn’t obscure the big progress that Kazakhstan has made.’
After the letter was leaked, opposition teams in Kazakhstan stated Sir Tony had ‘blood on his fingers’ for serving to the regime to whitewash the killings.
The TBA take care of Kazakhstan operated for 5 years and by the top the consultancy agency was searching for greater than £5million-a-year for its providers.
Avenue battles have gripped Kazakhstan after demonstrations over gasoline costs escalated into violent clashes between protesters and police
Creator and historian Mark Almond tweeted: ‘Kazakhstan’s present protests ought to remind us that the new-coined chevalier of human rights, Tony Blair, helped the regime to cowl up repression there up to now.’
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen stated: ‘He has been an adviser to quite a few leaders around the globe who can be thought of repressive. It is without doubt one of the components that has made his knighthood so contentious.’
Sir Tony has all the time denied receiving cash to ‘whitewash’ Kazakhstan’s human rights file, and insisted he was advising on political reforms and governance, and was not profiting personally.
In 2016, he introduced he had wound down his industrial operations. However as just lately as 2020 Sir Tony appeared in a video praising Mr Nazarbayev for his management.
A spokesman stated he was talking in a private capability and had not been paid.