Caviar diplomacy

Caviar diplomacy is the lobbying strategy of Azerbaijan, consisting of costly invitations of foreign politicians and employees of international organizations to Azerbaijan at the expense of the host country. Caviar Diplomacy also includes expensive gifts presented as “a tribute to the Eastern tradition.”[1][2][3][4][5]

A box of caviar

Terminology

The term “caviar diplomacy” was first used in 2012, in a report by the European Stability Initiative (ESI) – “Caviar Diplomacy – How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe”. It was noted in the report that this term is being used in informal conversations of Azerbaijani officials to describe generous gifts to foreign politicians.[2][6]

The Investigation of the “European Stability Initiative”
Robert Walter
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu

According to the sources of the European Stability Initiative, Azerbaijan has a group of 10-12 friends in Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and 3-4 people in the secretariat who receive at least half a kilogram of black caviar (the price on the market is more than 1300 euros per kilogram) as a gift four times a year. Many deputies are invited to Baku and during their visits receive, alongside the caviar, numerous other gifts including: expensive silk carpets, gold and silver items, drinks, caviar and money. In Baku, a common gift is 2 kg of caviar. According to the ESI, outside of PACE, there is no doubt about the situation with democracy in Azerbaijan, which is characterized as semi-authoritarian even by its biggest supporters. Nevertheless, despite the fact that there were no opposition parties elected to the Azerbaijani parliament in 2010, the head of the PACE mission stated that the elections corresponded to international standards. According to the ESI, this can be explained only by “caviar diplomacy”. The ESI cited an example of PACE discussions in its report, when Azerbaijan was publicly supported by its frequent visitors – British Liberal Democrat Michael Hancock and former Foreign Minister of Estonia Cristina Oyuland, who, despite the obvious regression in human rights situation in Azerbaijan, the lack of free elections, as well as criticism from international human rights organizations, stated that there are no serious problems in Azerbaijan. The ESI also added to the list of “friends of Azerbaijan” the Belgian Paul Vitte, Eduard Lintner from Bavaria, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu from Turkey, Robert Walter from Britain, and a number of Russian representatives.[2]

During the 2008 presidential elections, PACE observers included a large group of frankly pro-Azerbaijani MPs. The variant of the statement on elections, prepared by the head of the group of observers Andreas Herkel, containing critical remarks, faced the rejection of the pro-Azerbaijani group consisting of Michael Hancock, Eduard Lintner and Paul Ville. Herkel was forced to declare his resignation if criticism did not go into the statement. During the referendum, which lifted the limits on the number of presidential terms for Ilham Aliyev, four PACE deputies – Eduard Litner, Paul Ville, Khaki Keskin and Pedro Agramunt evaluated the referendum as the progress of democracy.[2]

In addition to PACE representatives, observers from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE (ODIHR) who have extensive experience of such observations, which revealed numerous violations of the procedure, which exclude the possibility of choice, were also present at the 2010 parliamentary elections. During the meetings of European observers, attended by PACE representatives in the person of Paul Ville and Pole Tadeusz Ivinski, the head of ODIHR observers, Audrey Glover from Great Britain, noted numerous violations that were not contested by PACE representatives. Nevertheless, the preliminary result of PACE monitoring, presented by Paul Ville, noted the compliance of preparations for elections with international standards, as well as transparent and effective work of the organizers. During the election, ODIHR observers recorded multiple violations and unprecedented ballot stuffing. By the closing of polling stations, the elections were assessed by the ODIHR as probably the most fraudulent they monitored. However, speaking on Azerbaijani television, Paul Ville stated that the elections were democratic and that he did not know about any violations. The ODIHR, in turn, subjected the elections to sharp criticism.

When asked if bribes were given to observers, Glover replied that she had not personally received it. After returning from Baku, representative of the PACE group Wolfgang Grosruck accused Audrey Glovek of being “unreliable”, unprofessional, and also of not speaking out in defense of PACE representatives when the questions about bribes were asked. The ODIHR report published in January 2011 contained extremely critical assessments of the 2010 elections.[2]

Investigations of the ESI have received resonance in Russian and international media: EU Observer,[7] Politiken,[8] DK,[9] Radio Sarajevo,[10] BBC,[11] Der Tagesspiegel,[12] Africa Intelligence,[5] Neue Zürcher Zeitung,[13] The Guardian[1] and others.[14][15]

2013 Presidential elections

On October 9, 2013, Ilham Aliyev was elected Azerbaijan’s president for the third time. Observers from the OSCE / ODIHR, led by Tana de Zulueta, spoke of restrictions on freedom of speech during elections, while representatives of the European Parliament headed by Pino Arlacchi confirmed free and fair elections.[16] The European Parliament and PACE issued a joint statement in which they highly appraised the elections. A group of observers from the US House of Representatives also acknowledged fair elections.[17]

Varying estimates of the elections led to a scandal. On October 11, the representative of the European Union, Catherine Ashton and European Commissioner Stefan Fule, ignored the assessment of the European Parliament, including in its statement the results of the ODIHR.[18] The Commission on Foreign Relations of the EU discussed the report of Arlacchi. During the discussion, representatives of the “green” condemned the report and said that it discredited the European Parliament. The head of the Socialists’ faction in the EU said that the PACE report cannot be considered reliable at all. It later emerged that a number of EU representatives traveled to Azerbaijan unofficially and on the dime of Azerbaijani organizations, which was regarded by the “European Voice” as “stupidity or corruption”, these trips were labeled “electoral tourism”.[19]

The US State Department in its turn discredited the observers from the House of Representatives, describing the elections as not meeting international standards, and expressing solidarity with the ODIHR's assessment.[20]

The turning point

In 2015, during the discussion of the resolution on political prisoners in the European Parliament, the text written by the pro-Azerbaijani rapporteurs initially contained almost no criticism, but as a result, a resolution was adopted calling for Azerbaijan to stop repression of human rights defenders, revising the law on non-governmental organizations, not putting pressure on journalists and there was also a threat of sanctions.[21] According to the German deputy Frank Schwab, this was a turning point for Azerbaijan's “caviar diplomacy”.[22]

On September 10, 2015, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in which Azerbaijan was condemned for “unprecedented repression”. The resolution also called on the European authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of allegations of corruption against President Aliyev and his family members, and to consider imposing targeted sanctions against officials related to the persecution.[23]

Investigation of the Italian prosecutor's office and in PACE

In June 2016, the Milan prosecutor's office brought charges of corruption and money laundering to Luca Volonte, the former head of the European People's Party faction in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. According to the Prosecutor's Office Volonte received €2.39 million for the support of Azerbaijani officials. Volonte’s lawyers called these accusations absolutely groundless. According to the second ESI report – “Caviar Diplomacy. Part 2”, published in December 2016, Volonte agreed to cooperate with the investigation and named many European politicians who have been lobbying for the interests of the Azerbaijani authorities. During the interrogations Volonte confirmed receiving €2.39 million for lobbying in favor of Azerbaijan. According to the ESI, the money went to bribing Italian and other politicians who voted against PACE resolutions and reports condemning human rights violations in Azerbaijan.[24] In the documentary film shown on Italian television, Volonte also confirmed the receipt of €2.39 million, arguing that this money was transferred from a member of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Elkhan Suleymanov for consultations on agriculture. Payments to Volonte went through four British companies, which, according to “The Guardian”, did not conduct any operations in Britain and probably are front companies.[25]

The Milan prosecutor's office accused Volonte of two episodes: money laundering and accepting bribes. The court of Milan, having considered the second charge, recognized Volonte's immunity for this episode, as according to the Italian constitution, a deputy cannot be prosecuted for his professional activities.[26] Later, the Supreme Court of Italy reversed this decision and returned the case to the Milan Court, citing the fact that the article of the Constitution is not about using his or her position for personal enrichment purposes.[27]

Ex-ambassador of Azerbaijan to the European Union Arif Mammadov told “The Guardian” that he spent about 30 million euros for the services of lobbyists as representative of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Council of Europe: “All members of the Azerbaijani delegation knew about this figure, although it never appeared anywhere. It was said, that the money is intended for bribing members of other delegations and the PACE as a whole.” A number of PACE deputies said that they knew about proposals to bribe the European deputies.[28]

Elkhan Suleymanov, the representative of Azerbaijan in PACE, is called the “curator” of Volonte and other European deputies. The European press cites examples of how Volonte recalled his requests to the PACE, informing Suleymanov that “your every word is an order for me”. Through the company, from which Volonte received his payments, in total of about one billion euros were conducted. Attempts by Armenian MEPs to raise the issue of corruption in PACE came up against the opposition of PACE President Pedro Agramunt, another subject of investigation of the “caviar diplomacy”, who deprived them of their voice and prevented the investigation. Der Tagesspiegel qualifies this investigation as “the biggest scandal in the history of Europe”. After the publication in the media, Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, called on Agramut to personally provide an independent external investigative body without any further delay. Agramunt and the leaders of the five political groups rejected the proposals of the CoE official Wojciech Sawicki, which sets out the conditions for an independent investigation. However, after the visit of Agramunt to Syria, the PACE Bureau expressed to him a vote of no confidence and in fact removed Agramunt from real power,[29] after which in April 2017 the Parliamentary Assembly formed a commission to investigate alleged corruption accusations.[30][31][28] Its report has been published in April 2018.[32]

Malta

In April 2017, the Maltese press published documents according to which the top politicians of Malta and the wife of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat received millions of dollars from a bank controlled by Ilham Aliyev's daughter Leila. According to the editorial investigation, Joseph Muscat made a trip to Baku in 2015, after which he called on Europe to give an objective assessment of the positive processes in Azerbaijan.[33]

gollark: = pico millennium
gollark: =wolf picomillennium
gollark: =wolf perimeter of sweden in microparsecs
gollark: =wolf area of sweden in square parsecs
gollark: Now that's a reasonably large number.

See also

References
  1. Plush hotels and caviar diplomacy: how Azerbaijan’s elite wooed MPs Archived 2015-07-05 at the Wayback Machine // the Guardian, 24 November 2013
  2. Caviar Diplomacy. How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe Archived 2017-09-11 at the Wayback Machine // ESI, 24 May 2012
  3. «Икорная дипломатия» Баку в сфере прав человека Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine // RFE/RL, 12.11.2013
  4. Council of Europe plagued by ‘caviar diplomacy’ Archived 2017-07-30 at the Wayback Machine // EURACTIV 23 03 2017
  5. Will IOG go for Baku’s ‘caviar diplomacy’ ? Archived 2017-08-07 at the Wayback Machine // Africa Intelligence, 9 02 2017 г. "Baku's "caviar diplomacy" which consisted of buying the good graces of certain members of the Council of Europe"
  6. Thomas de Waal. "Независимому Азербайджану — 25: начинается новая эпоха перемен и потрясений?". Carnegie Middle East Center. Archived from the original on 2017-01-13. Retrieved 2017-01-10.
  7. Azerbaijani lobbyists target EU opinion Azerbaijani lobbyists target EU opinion Archived 2017-08-07 at the Wayback Machine // EU Observer, 24. MAY 2012
  8. Grandprix-værter stopper kritik med kaviargaver Archived 2016-09-27 at the Wayback Machine // Politiken, 26. MAJ. 2012
  9. Aserbajdsjan har held med kaviardiplomati Archived 2017-08-07 at the Wayback Machine // DR, 26. MAJ. 2012
  10. "Azerbejdžanska kavijar diplomacija". Archived from the original on 2016-03-18. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  11. Аналитики из Европы критикуют «икорную дипломатию» Баку Archived 2016-09-27 at the Wayback Machine // BBC, 13 июня 2012
  12. Die Kaviar-Diplomatie Archived 2017-08-07 at the Wayback Machine // Der Tagesspiegel, 22.10.2012
  13. Im Auftrag des Despoten Archived 2017-08-07 at the Wayback Machine // Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 20.11.2012
  14. Europa: El lobby de los dictadores Archived 2015-08-05 at the Wayback Machine // Proceso, 30 DE ENERO DE 2015
  15. «Икорная дипломатия» Азербайджана: в Совете Европы процветает коррупция? Archived 2017-08-07 at the Wayback Machine // Регнум, 26 Мая 2012
  16. Наблюдательная миссия ОБСЕ подвергла резкой критике выборы Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine // RFE/RL, 10.10.2013
  17. Love Aliyev, love Aliyev not Archived 2016-03-18 at the Wayback Machine // Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, 17 October 2013
  18. Кэтрин Эштон и Штефан Фюле раскритиковали президентские выборы в Азербайджане // Регнум, 11 Октября 2013 (копия)
  19. MEPs must explain trips to Azerbaijan // EUROPEAN VOICE, 10/16/13 (копия)
  20. Azerbaijan Presidential Election (Press Statement) Archived 2019-01-11 at the Wayback Machine // U.S. Department of State, October 10, 2013
  21. The functioning of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan Archived 2017-09-06 at the Wayback Machine // Parliamentary Assembly, Resolution 2062 (2015)
  22. Abschied von der «Kaviardiplomatie»? Archived 2017-08-28 at the Wayback Machine // Der Tagesspiegel, 02.07.2015
  23. EU and Azerbaijan: Breaking Up or Muddling Through? Archived 2017-08-31 at the Wayback Machine // Eurasianet, September 16, 2015
  24. Оппозиция потребовала от властей Азербайджана реакции на доклад о подкупе депутатов ПАСЕ Archived 2017-08-28 at the Wayback Machine // Кавказский узел, 21 декабря 2016
  25. UK companies ‘linked to Azerbaijan pipeline bribery scandal’ Archived 2017-08-28 at the Wayback Machine // The Guardian, 31 December 2016
  26. Parlamentare che si vende una legge? Non processabile. La sentenza: «I suoi atti sono insindacabili, dibattimento inutile» Archived 2017-08-04 at the Wayback Machine // Il fatto quotidiano, 22 maggio 2017
  27. Corruzione, «immunità parlamentare non preclude perseguibilità». La Cassazione annulla proscioglimento Volontè Archived 2017-09-03 at the Wayback Machine // Il fatto quotidiano, 24 luglio 2017
  28. Fresh claims of Azerbaijan vote-rigging at European human rights body Archived 2017-07-14 at the Wayback Machine // The Guardian, 20/04/2017
  29. PACE Bureau declares ‘no confidence’ in Pedro Agramunt as President Archived 2017-09-06 at the Wayback Machine // Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, 28/04/2017
  30. Совет Европы расследует возможный подкуп парламентариев Азербайджаном // DW, 24.04.2017
  31. Die Spur des Geldes Archived 2017-09-10 at the Wayback Machine // Der Tagesspiegel, 22.03.2017
  32. "Report of the Independent Investigation Body on the allegations of corruption within the Parliamentary Assembly" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-04-25. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  33. Azerbaijan’s First Family Accused in Maltese Corruption Scandal Archived 2017-05-05 at the Wayback Machine // Eurasianet, May 1, 2017
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