It is not unusual for dictators, especially particularly nasty ones like Islam Karimov, to create monsters among their family members, notes International Affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe. Think only of the plundering relatives: Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace in Zimbabwe, the offspring of “Papa Doc” Duvalier in Haiti, and the rabid sons of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
What is unusual, however, is for Frankenstein to turn on his creation. An excerpt of Manthorpe’s new column, Uzbekisatan’s dictator destroys “princess” daughter:
Supermarket tabloid divas like the Kardashians and Miley Cyrus are rank amateurs in the league tables of manic self-obsessives and insatiable exhibitionists of their own excruciating bad taste when stacked up against the gold standards set by Gulnara Karimova.
Mind you, Karimova, 41, who immodestly but truthfully describes herself as a “poet, mezzo soprano, designer and exotic Uzbekistan beauty,” has some advantages when it comes to the lavish life of the exhibitionist.
She is the daughter of Uzbekistan’s dictator President Islam Karimov, and over the last decade of so he has turned a blind eye to — and perhaps aided and abetted — his daughter as she pillaged the economy of the Central Asian nation of 30 million people to feed her vanity.
At the climax of her achievement of self-adoration Karimova had a fortune of at least $1 billion, at least, that’s what’s been found in her Swiss bank accounts. She also controlled Uzbek radio and television stations which specialized in broadcasting her sideline as a pop icon, which she performed under the name “Googoosha.” … read Uzbekisatan’s dictator destroys “princess” daughter. (Log in first; subscription or day pass* required)
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