Most of the countries of the former Soviet Union have problems with democracy and human rights, to put it mildly. There is the unpleasant dictatorship of Belarus, on Europe's doorstep, and the surreal personality cult in Turkmenistan, with golden statues of the country's first President and giant portraits of his successor on every building.
But even in this distinctly dodgy company, Uzbekistan stands out
as a particularly unpleasant state – the worst of the worst.
It is no exaggeration to call the state – which is run by the
ageing and reclusive Islam Karimov – one of the world's most
vicious dictatorships. No dissent is tolerated and critics often
meet sticky ends. Children are turfed out of school for weeks at a
time and forced to pick cotton in the fields.
The population lives in fear – on the one occasion when dissent
burst into the open, in the city of Andijan in 2005, Mr Karimov's
security forces opened fire on the protesters, killing hundreds.
The Uzbek regime refused to allow an independent investigation into
the violence.
Western journalists are largely banned from entering the country
and international organisations have been kicked out one by
one.
Independent thought among locals is also crushed mercilessly.
Tashkent had the first privately run theatre in the whole of the
Soviet Union, which continued staging politically daring plays in
independent Uzbekistan. The theatre's director, Mark Weil, was
bludgeoned to death outside his apartment in 2007. The attackers
were never caught.
Bell Pottinger Group is not the first to appear willing to do
business with the regime.
When the football coach Luiz Felipe Scolari left Chelsea, he
took up a highly profitable role as coach of Bunyodkor, the
Tashkent football team that at the time was believed to be funded
by Mr Karimov's daughter, Gulnara. She is a socialite and jetsetter
who critics say positions herself as the acceptable face of the
regime, legitimising the Karimov family's financial assets abroad.
She also releases music videos under the moniker GooGoosha, her
father's pet name for her. And she even has her own fashion
line.
The singer Sting was criticised in 2009 for accepting cash to
perform at an arts festival in Tashkent that was organised by Ms
Karimov. Sting was pictured laughing and joking with her.
In a statement, the singer said: "I am well aware of the Uzbek
President's appalling reputation in the field of human rights as
well as the environment. I made the decision to play there in spite
of that.
"I have come to believe that cultural boycotts are not only
pointless gestures, they are counter-productive, where proscribed
states are further robbed of the open commerce of ideas and art and
as a result become even more closed, paranoid and insular."
When Craig Murray, who was appointed Britain's ambassador to the
country in 2002, witnessed the brutality of the Uzbek regime up
close he gave a number of speeches that were extremely critical of
the regime and of the American and British willingness to ignore Mr
Karimov's brutal side in order to win favour for co-operation in
the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Mr Murray referred to Mr Karimov's government as a "fascist
regime" and attempted to speak out for activists and ordinary
Uzbeks who had fallen foul of it. He sent cables to London
detailing widespread torture and incidents such as the boiling
alive of two Islamist dissidents. He was dismissed from his post by
the Foreign Office in 2004.
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Caught on camera: top lobbyists boasting how they influence the
PM
*The
Sting: The fake 'Asimov Group' meets Bell Pottinger
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The Transcript: 'David Cameron raised it with the Chinese Prime
Minister'
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We wrote Sri Lankan President's civil war speech, say lobbyists
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Vicious dictatorship which Bell Pottinger was prepared to do
business with
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Oliver Wright: Vested interests are entitled to argue their case,
but it must be in the open
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Andrew Grice: Plenty of talk about cracking down on lobbying – but
still there's no action
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Leading article: Evidence of a lobbying industry out of control
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