{"id":359,"date":"2014-06-20T14:58:07","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T14:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=359"},"modified":"2014-06-23T15:09:03","modified_gmt":"2014-06-23T15:09:03","slug":"british-mps-taken-on-caviar-trail-by-lobbyists-close-to-azerbaijans-corrupt-dictatorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=359","title":{"rendered":"British MPs Taken On \u201cCaviar Trail\u201d By Lobbyists Close To Azerbaijan\u2019s Corrupt Dictatorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JON STONE<\/strong>
\nBuzz Feed<\/em><\/p>\n

Twelve British MPs have accepted tens of thousands of pounds of hospitality since the last election from pro-Azerbaijan lobbyists with close connections to the dictatorship\u2019s ruling elite, despite the regime\u2019s history of human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

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The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS), which has paid for ten of the MPs to go on all-expenses paid trips to the country, funded a \u00a3300-an-hour paid advisor role, and even gave one MP a selection of gifts including a \u201cQueen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee pageant woollen commemorative scarf\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some of the MPs have asked questions in parliament about trade with the country, including one directed at the Prime Minister. This has led to concerns that the country could be buying influence on the British government.<\/p>\n

\u201cAzerbaijan are probably more active than any other country at the moment in pushing a very strong, very well financed public relations agenda that comes out in the Houses of Parliament by taking a group of MPs on a caviar trail,\u201d says Labour MP Paul Flynn, a long-time critic of the country\u2019s authoritarian government.<\/p>\n

The European Azerbaijan Society claims to be an independent advocacy organisation, but a leaked<\/a> 2010 US embassy cable stated in no uncertain terms that its interests were aligned with those of the country\u2019s super-rich elite, and that it lobbied on the regime\u2019s talking points.<\/p>\n

Azerbaijan\u2019s most energetic advocate in the House of Commons is the Christopher Pincher, the Conservative MP for Tamworth, who chairs Azerbaijan\u2019s All Party Parliamentary Group. The European Azerbaijan Society paid for him to visit the country in 2012 and again in 2013, at a cost of over \u00a37,000.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month Pincher asked David Cameron to extend a trade deal on oil and gas from the country. He has previously lobbied the Foreign Secretary to visit Azerbaijan and also intervened in parliamentary debates on human rights abuses by its government. Always open about his chairing of the country\u2019s APPG, Pincher also sits on parliament\u2019s Energy Committee, whose remit includes scrutinising oil and gas supply to the UK. BuzzFeed tried to contact Pincher for comment but he was not available.<\/p>\n