Craig Murray swings at President Clinton for being photographed with the ‘appalling’ Gulnara Karimova, the not unattractive daughter of the leader of Uzbekistan.

Just why Clinton is posing with the appalling Gulnara Karimova is unclear. But it might well relate to the continued efforts by the Obama administration to improve relations with President Karimov of Uzbekistan. As reported here in March, the US has signed new treaties with Uzbekistan, on use of the country for land transit to US forces in Afghanistan.

This jogged something in the back of my mind. But what …….?

Oh yes! Got it.

Craig’s book Murder in Samarkand, pp 210-211. It describes a bekilted Craig’s pride at being joined at the Queen’s Birthday Party hosted by the President’s daughter Gulnara – her first ever presence at a national day event! Unheard of!

And Gulnara was quite hot:

… charming and girlish … in a simple dress and laughing eyes … giggling at my light conversation…

Gulnara even flirted with Craig, prettily wondering about getting a job as his interpreter as they fended off a passing drunken Uzkek functionary.

Appalling!

Update: Laurence Jarvik picks up this angle and links to this article by Ken Silverstein about Gulnara’s possible donations to the Clinton Foundation, and said Foundation’s reluctance to confirm or deny this.

That article led me to Gulnara’s own site. Lots of pictures of her with celebs, but alas not one that I could see from that QBP with Craig Murray.

Her biography tells its story. As communism ends and her Dad gets to run Uzbekistan free from Moscow, she begins to soar upwards to her current giddy height as Uzbekistan’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva.

And see her superb artwork, including one fine work depicting the rescue craft sent to rescue the topless Uzbek woman who jumped into Craig Murray’s Ambassadorial swimming-pool as his Tashkent QBP ("in conventional terms, the highlight of my professional career") ended in exuberantly intoxicated late-night revelry.

Alas her poems are in Russian.