On an eve of a deep political and economic crisis in Uzbekistan, Gulnara Karimova is holding her yet another PR-project.

The arrest of the three-level apartment of Gulnara Karimova in the center of Moscow, the arrest of four citizens of Uzbekistan in Switzerland, representatives and managers of firms controlled by Gulnara Karimova, freezing the Swiss bank accounts with several hundred million U.S. dollars belonging to persons close to Gulnara Karimova, the arrest by Prosecutor’s office in Sweden of multimillion-dollar assets of firms controlled by Gulnara Karimova, investigations in Sweden and Switzerland of cases related to bribery of $ 300 million to Uzbek officials by “TeliaSonera”s management, the scandalous resignation of former head of “TeliaSonera” Lars Nyberg; documentary films about the corrupt financial schemes of “TeliaSonera” with Uzbek partners, publication of documents proving that Gulnara Karimova is involved in extortion of bribes, termination of Gulnara Karimova’s office as a head of mission of Uzbekistan to the UN in Geneva with the loss of diplomatic immunity, police raids into several houses of Gulnara Karimova in Switzerland and France investigating the money laundering case; scandalous interview of Lola Karimova, Gulnara’s yonger sister, about the conflict in Uzbek president’s family – these and other facts make “ArtWeek Style.uz-2013” different from previous ones.

On October 22, Tashkent starts hosting annual Week of Arts “ArtWeekStyle.Uz- 2013”, which is going to last six days. The main organizer of the event is the Public Fund “Forum of Culture and Art of Uzbekistan”, which is guided by Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has been running the country for almost a quarter century. “ArtWeekStyle.Uz” is the first and most prominent large-scale cultural project in Central Asia aimed at further development of the modern and the traditional national fashion and art of Uzbekistan” – with these words begins the presentation of the project, which is annually held in Tashkent since 2006, and actively financed by domestic and international financial institutions operating in Uzbekistan.

Organizers of “Art Week Style.Uz- 2013” promise to give unforgettable experiences to participants of the event. In particular, the event will include Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art, the International Theatre Festival “Theatre.Uz”, Tashkent International Film Forum “Golden Cheetah”, various exhibitions, shows by fashion designers, charity concerts, social events, workshops, conferences and other events.

“Art Week Style.Uz” is the most ambitious project of Gulnara Karimova, the main aim of which promoting her personality both within Uzbekistan and beyond. It has already become a tradition that the event is visited by recognized international stars, such as Julio Iglesias, Jose Carreras, Montserrat Caballe, Rod Stewart, Sting, Ennio Morricone, Eros Ramazzotti. Travel expenses and performance fees of well known stars in Uzbekistan were mostly organized at the expense of “MTS –Uzbekistan”, “Ucell” and “Beeline-Uzbekistan”, largest mobile operators working and had worked under the auspices of Gulnara Karimova.

This year was no exception. On October 22, Yuri Bashmet, People’s Artist of Russia and winner of numerous awards, will perform in the concert hall “Istiqlol” in the opening ceremony of “Art Week Style.uz- 2013”. The apogee of event will be the performance of charming Lara Fabian. Mobile operator “Ucell” is a general sponsor of Yuri Bashmet’s concert, and another mobile operator “Beeline-Uzbekistan” became the general sponsor of Lara Fabian’s performance.

“Art Week Style.uz- 2013” will be held despite large scandalous investigations of high-profile financial crimes involving Gulnara Karimova, author of the event. Gulnara created her vast fortune enjoying the protection of her father, using the full power of his administrative resources to organize numerous raids into big businesses. Permissiveness, backed by the absolute power of her father, allowed her to create mafia-like structure that has been freely stealing people’s wealth in Uzbekistan for more than two decades. Lavish receptions organized by Gulnara for European and American high society are focused on creating a public image of her as a possible new leader of Uzbekistan, who can change the life of the Uzbek people for the better. But her immoderate propensity to obtaining wealth failed Gulnara Karimova’s image abroad. A number of criminal cases in European countries involving Ms Karimovs virtually restrict her to going abroad.

As with all previous projects of Gulnara, “Art Week Style.uz- 2013” is held at the expense of commercial structures operating in Uzbekistan, whose “donation” is collected forcibly by fiscal authorities of the country on behalf of Gulnara. The organizers of the project do not give wide publicity to the information on the amount of project costs and those funds that were received as a charity. The official website of the project, which stores the information is published about each years event, has no financial information, as well as information about those commercial entities that are sponsoring “Art Week Style.uz”. This fact leads to the clear conclusion that the project is carried out with violations of laws and with a solid presence corruption component.

By generously paying to world famous stars of show business at the expense of local businesses, Gulnara Karimova gets her political dividends in the form of a subsequent positive response about the project.

One such example is performance of famous pop star Sting at “Art Week Style.uz- 2009” held at the Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Alisher Navoi in Tashkent. “I am well aware of the reputation of the president of Uzbekistan, and decided to perfrom no matter what. I very much doubt that the president of Uzbekistan cares about my arrival in the country. He is too engrossed in his medieval, tyrannical business” falsely said Sting commenting his visit to Uzbekistan. Three million dollars, received for his performance in front of Gulnara, turned the social activist and an ardent defender of nature, Sting, into a hypocrite. There are many examples of this sort – famous artists and representatives of show business, who falsely think they are the benchmarks of our time, for the sake of easy money, are ready to justify the most brutal rulers and to make a deal with the devil.

Given the socio-economic realities of Uzbekistan, where the average salary is 130-150 US dollars, no commercial structure does not voluntarily agree to be the general sponsor concerts of famous stars, who are paid at least to 1 million euros for their performance. Price of one ticket to Yuri Bashmet’s concert ranges from 10 to 20 U.S. dollars, and going to concert of Lara Fabian costs from 20 to 230 U.S. dollars. It is a remarkable fact that tickets can only be purchased with cash – credit card or bank transfer payments are not accepted.

With certainty it can be argued that the ordinary Uzbek are not able to afford going to concerts of world stars because of the limited financial capacities. As in previous years, the tickets will be in “voluntary-compulsory” form sold to government organizations and commercial entities, and the received funds will be spent on next PR-campaigns of Gulnara Karimova.

Projects of Gulnara Karimova target 7-8 millions of young people in Uzbekistan, potential supporters in the upcoming presidential elections in 2015. Gulnara openly started the presidential race, and to achieve her goal she has been using the full potential of the available media resources. Flirting with the people and increasing her public appearances, Gulnara is trying to convince the citizens of Uzbekistan in the fact that she can only become a real president of the Republic.

However, the lack of professionalism of her political technologists and expansiveness of her nature, are unlikely to materialize her ideas. Using social networks to contact with the people, as many modern politicians do today, Gulnara has been severely criticizing her opponents on the presidential race, turning the social networks into the ring for a showdown. After the events involving “MTS- Uzbekistan” and a number of media publications criticizing Gulnara Karimova, she emotionally started publishing in her blog the information that, in her view, aimed to rehabilitate her image.

The information war had very negative consequences for both sides, those who lost a huge business in Uzbekistan, and for the president’s family, which once again confirmed the whole world about the terrible corruption in Uzbekistan. Apparently realizing her mistake, Gulnara decided to remove her micro-blog and her personal blog with all their content. Making one mistake after another, Gulnara is sinking deeper into a web of intractable problems that can eventually lead to irreparable consequences.

Uzbekistan is on the verge of political changes; large shocks are awaiting the country. On an eve of a deep political and economic crisis in the country, Gulnara organizes yet nother “Art Week Style.Uz” event hoping to balance the situation.

However, behind the scenes struggle for power in the country is in full swing and the candidates for the throne of Uzbekistan are opening their cards, driven under the laws of the game “The Law of the Jungle”. Given the circumstances it can be assumed that Gulnara Karimova will not be able to be the first in this uncompromising battle for power.

Murat RAKHIMOV