The Daily Mail reports: Tony Blair touted his firm’s services to a dictator for £5.3million a year, the Daily Mail can reveal today.
He made the shameless sales pitch to Nursultan Nazarbayev, offering the Kazakh president his ‘unique personal experience and insights’.
Leaked documents lay bare the former prime minister’s dealings with a regime behind appalling human rights abuses.
It is accused of routinely torturing citizens and massacring 15 defenceless protesters in 2011. The dossier reveals that:
- A key aide offered Mr Blair’s ‘private strategic advice’ to Mr Nazarbayev only a year after he left No 10;
- Six years on he was still touting for work in Kazakhstan, despite civil rights fears;
- The pitch promised Mr Blair would be ‘particularly closely involved’ – for a bigger fee;
- He rewrote a speech for Mr Nazarbayev to fend off criticism over the 2011 massacre;
- His firm tried to involve an EU crony in lobbying for the Kazakh regime.
The extent of Mr Blair’s dealings with the former Soviet republic in central Asia raises further questions about his apparent willingness to work with unsavoury leaders.
‘It seems that no regime is too despotic for Tony Blair to work for – provided the price is right,’ said Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen.
‘Since leaving office he has become a gun for hire for all manner of dubious regimes, damaging our reputation around the world.’ [Continue reading…]
