Prince Andrew enjoyed “caviar diplomacy” from autocratic nations, including lavish hospitality, private flights and a blind Russian masseuse.
- The Royal: The Azerbaijani dictatorship was using a full-spectrum influence campaign to sway Western opinion in its favour.
- Since 1991, about 20 billion pounds was invested by the UK into the former Soviet state, according to the Daily Mail.
- Moreover, the royal met with the autocratic president of Azerbaijan 12 times.
- Caviar diplomacy is used to improve a country’s image in the eyes of the world.
- Plus there were reports of Azerbaijan lobbying of Prince William and Prince Harry to host a polo match in the country.
Caviar Diplomacy: The former soviet nation courted the Duke of York with lavish hospitality and declared him the “Dear Guest”, travel records, media reports and anti-corruption reports show.
The Duke of York’s Other Unsavoury Diploatic Contacts
Prince Andrew – the Caviar Trade Rep
| Date | Country | Who | Reason | Media | Conflict |
| 2001 | UK | Prince Andrew roving trade ambassador | Appointed as roving trade ambassador. Went to NYC weeks after Sept 11 attacks | ttps://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14235330h | September 11 |
| 2007/2008 | Libya | Prince Andrew meets Col Gaddafi & son Saif Al-Islam. Duke meets dictator three times in 2008 & is photographed on yachts owned by Libyans. One of Andrew’s trips to Libya in 2007 was official business. It was for five days. | Andrew demands a briefing with UK Serious Fraud Office on BAE Saudi bribery claims. “Two senior SFO sources confirmed that BAE case-handlers had protested in strong terms at the time at the request for a briefing by Prince Andrew, and insisted that he only be given publicly-available information. “They all thought the request was well out of order,” one said. They felt “very uncomfortable”. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/nov/30/prince-andrew-wikileaks-cables | ◀️◀️ | Arab Spring |
| 2009 | Libya Azerbaijan Tunisia | Libyan gun-runner and friend of Prince Andrew ‘gave Princess Beatrice £18k necklace’ before the Duke allegedly lobbied British company for him. The gift-giver, Tarek Kaituni, spent several years on remand in a Paris jail for smuggling a gun before he was given a two-month suspended sentence, and fined 10,000 Euros a year later. Andrew, who continued to visit Libya and party with Libyans.In 2011, Andrew met with MP to discuss “Azerbaijani trade.” The duke was a constant visitor to the nation. While trade envoy and after. He met with President Ilham Aliyev, a man described by The Daily Mail as a despot, on more than a dozen occasions. Despite growing concern over his willingness to establish business links with foreign dictatorships from the Middle East to central Asia, the Duke of York met Mark Field, Tory MP for Cities of London and Westminster and chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Azerbaijan, at Buckingham Palace and asked for support in parliament and Whitehall for British investment in Azerbaijan.“None of this seemed to bother Andrew, who enjoyed a four-day holiday in Tunisia with Kaituni in November 2008, shortly before visiting Colonel Gaddafi in Tripoli. Calling for the Duke to lose his role, Labour MP Chris Bryant told the House of Commons: “Isn’t it especially difficult to explain the behaviour of the special ambassador for trade who is not only a close friend of Saif Gaddafi but is also a close friend of a convicted Libyan gun smuggler, Tarek Kaituni.” The common link between the Prince and the gun runner? The alleged fraudster who gifted Prince Andrew more than £1 million ($1.3 million) was introduced to him by a convicted Libyan gun smuggler. https://www.arabnews.com/node/2055996/world Tony Blair had a private meeting with Prince Andrew in 2009 after they stayed in the same hotel in the notorious former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. On this occasion, Andrew was on a private three-day visit ‘with an element of work’, but has previously established a wealth of contacts while promoting British business interests in his special envoy role. | News said gun runner wanted Andrew to lobby for him in the UK. It was also claimed Andrew courted Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi at Buckingham Palace. Why? Money? Trade? Plus he hosted the Tunisian dictator’s son-in-law at the palace in 2011. Met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, a man described by The Daily Mail as a despot, more than a dozen times. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2833917/Prince-Andrew-secretly-flies-Azerbaijan-meeting-president.html | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370629/Libyan-gun-runner-friend-Prince-Andrew-Tarek-Kaituni-gave-Princess-Beatrice-18k-necklace.htm. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17693751/prince-andrew-links-libya-gaddafi/ https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp. theguardian.com/uk/2011/mar/09/prince-andrew-lobbies-azerbaijan https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1233533/Blair-Prince-Andrew–private-meeting-Azerbaijan.html ok | Arab spring.Azerbaijan constantly fighting with neighbours. Tunisian dictator overthrown. |
| 2008 onwards | Kazakhstan | According to The Times: “Andrew’s dealings with the oil and gas-rich former Soviet republic have multiplied in recent years. Since 2003 he has paid three social visits to the country.” He dined with the ex-President in 2008 in a VIP section of a five-star resort in Egypt, said The Times. The East Asian nation’s tentacles are now deep inside the United Kingdom’s trade system. The Prince was also, until recently, the Honorary Patron of the British Kaazch Society. The royal repeatedly visited Kazakhstan for his own reasons, too. He was there on another “private” visit in 2008, according to his spokesman. | The ex-president’s son in law bought his unwanted martial house. | Bloody Tuesday crackdown 2022. The regime is described as a kleptocracy, essentially stealing from its people. | https://jeffreyepsteinpodcast.com/2022/03/23/latest-prince-andrew-news-the-other-photo-he-didnt-want-you-to-see/ |
| 2014 | Azerbaijan | Andrew censured for sneaking off twice to meet with despotic President. The Duke of York flew by private jet to meet Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev. The Billionaire despot has been accused of appalling human rights abuses. Prince Andrew stayed in the room capital, Baku, during his ‘private’ four-day trip. “Details of the trip only emerged after a British Government source tipped off the pressure group, Platform, which campaigns against social and environmental abuses associated with the energy industry. Its spokesman, Emma Hughes, accused the prince of having a ‘cosy relationship’ with President Aliyev and demanded to know in what capacity he was visiting Azerbaijan.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2833917/Prince-Andrew-secretly-flies-Azerbaijan-meeting-president.html It has grown increasingly close to President Aliyev, 48. He is also said to be friendly with his wife Mehriban and daughters Leyla and Arzu. | “The regularity of his visits have also led media in the former Soviet state to speculate that the Queen’s son may have business links to the oil-rich state, including a golf resort on the Caspian Sea. Buckingham Palace has vehemently denied this.” https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2833917/amp/Prince-Andrew-secretly-flies-Azerbaijan-meeting-president.html (note: a resolution adopted by the European Parliament in September 2015 described Azerbaijan as “having suffered the greatest decline in democratic governance in all of Eurasia over the past ten years,” noting as well that its dialogue with the country on human rights has “not made any substantial progress.”) In 2016, Azerbaijan was harshly criticized for bribing foreign officials and diplomats to promote its causes abroad and legitimize its elections at home, a practice termed Caviar diplomacy. (Source: Wikipedia) Local media in Azerbaijan have speculated that he has business links in the region, including a golf resort on the Caspian Sea. Buckingham Palace has, however, denied this.” writes the publication. Even after retiring, as the Independent has learned, the Duke of York continues to demand reports on the situation in Azerbaijan directly from the British ambassador to Baku, with whom he recently held a face-to-face meeting, inviting him to the palace. | http://caviar-diplomacy.net/azerbaijan/en_US/ In Baku, the prince is treated in a royal way. For example, Ilham Aliyev took him to his own luxury spa, which employs a blind Russian masseur described as the best in the world. It is not by chance that “over the past five years, Prince Andrew visited President Aliyev eight times.” He also invites the British Ambassador to Baku to Buckingham Palace, demanding reports on the situation in Azerbaijan. Tina Brown upcoming book: “She claimed Epstein would fly Andrew to meet governments in ‘obscure foreign markets’ who could not refuse to see him because he was a royal, and would come along with him as an ‘investment adviser’ to His Royal Highness. He then would negotiate deals for his personal gain. Brown said Epstein knew which buttons to push to ensnare Prince Andrew, who felt stung from being second fiddle to Prince Charles and relied on his mother to fund his lifestyle. The author and journalist also claimed Andrew was made to feel important by Epstein thanks to ‘the deals, the girls, the plane, the glittering New York world, where he wasn’t seen as a full-grown man still dependent on his mother’s Privy Purse strings.’ | 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war was an armed conflict in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding territories. The main combatants were Azerbaijan, with support from Turkey and foreign mercenary groups on one side; and the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh and Armenia, on the other. It was the latest escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region source Wikpedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Nagorno-Karabakh_war List of conflicts; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_between_Azerbaijan_and_Armeniahttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10713331/Prince-Andrew-spent-two-days-suite-watching-porn-cable-new-bombshell-book-claims.html |
| 2015/16 | Kazakhstan | Prince Andrew acted as a broker for a Kazakh oligarch who wanted to buy a London home from the Queen’s estate, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed. The Duke of York’s office tried to secure a crown estate property near Kensington Palace for the oil and gas tycoon Timur Kulibayev at the same time as his marital home of Sunninghill Park was being sold to the billionaire for £3m over the asking price. The duke was a government trade envoy at the time of the attempted deal for Kulibayev, son-in-law of the Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Its emergence is likely to fuel calls for further investigation into his dealings with the autocratic regime. According to the emails released to the Mail on Sunday, the Duke of York’s private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, urged the crown estate to sell one of its valuable Kensington properties to Kulibayev, saying: “They are happy to spend very large numbers to get the right property.” | Kazaks wanted a trade deal with the UK and they received billions in deals with English firms. | https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/03/prince-andrew-broker-crown-property-kazakh-oligarch | Human rights abuses |
| 2019 | Libya | The UK’s Telegraph newspaper disclosed that the Duke of York was introduced to Selman Turk by Libyan Tarek Kaituni in 2019. After their summer meet, they quickly established a friendship, with the duke attending dinners at Turk’s London home. Kaituni had a longer link with Prince Andrew, which he boasted about to other connections. He had reportedly organized meetings between the duke and the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and attended the wedding of the duke’s daughter, Princess Eugenie, in 2018. Turk quickly used his introduction to the duke to organize payments to him and his family, including £225,000 to his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and £25,000 to Princess Eugenie. Andrew gave Turk an award at his Pitch@thePalace 2019 London event, for a bank which collapsed. | Cash for citizenship? | https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/03/more-details-emerge-of-prince-andrews-alleged-links-with-banker-selman-turk | |
| 2019 | Bahrain | Goes to Bahrain with Fergie, Beatrice & her husband. Pic taken at Grand Prix. Andrew on a week of Royal engagements. “Inseparable” with Fergie and stayed at the Ritz. November 2019: Andrew pulls out of Bahrain trip after Epstein interview | PR to gloss over human rights abuses | OngoingUnilateral US-Arab intervention against Syrian Islamists. The Houthi insurgency in Yemen,[45][46] also known as the Houthi rebellion, the Sa’dah War, or the Sa’dah conflict, was a military rebellion pitting Zaidi Shia Houthis (though the movement also includes Sunnis[47]) against the Yemeni military that began in Northern Yemen and has since escalated into a full-scale civil war. | |
| 2022 | Turkey | Prince Andrew has become embroiled in a legal riddle over a £750,000 payment from a Turkish millionairess. Nebahat Isbilen, 77, who claims to have been scammed out of fortune by a dishonest businessman, was allegedly tricked into giving the Duke of York money ‘by way of payment for assistance’ with her passport, a court heard. The prince has since repaid the cash after she alleged it was a scam. The Daily Mail | Cash for citizenship | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10687023/Moment-Turkish-fraudster-gave-Prince-Andrew-750-000-cut-trumpets-crap.html | |
| More: | Other notables: 2010: Met with Jordanian, Malaysian, Indian and Indonesia defence ministers 2011: visits Saudi Arabia Qatar and UAE, meets with the Saudis up until 2019 2013 Meets Turkmenistan. PresidentTom Mayne, of the anticorruption campaign Global Witness in London, told RFE/RL that such meetings could be positive if Prince Andrew raised important issues such as corruption. “Unfortunately, what we’ve been hearing — for example in the leaked cables — is that Prince Andrew doesn’t take the topic of corruption seriously,” Mayne said. “Turkmenistan is perceived as one of the most corrupt countries in the world: the country doesn’t publish a proper budget; there is very little information about what happens there to the money that the country earns from its sale of oil and gas. It is his obligation, if he’s promoting business, to raise these issues.” |
From flights on the president’s jet to gifts of the fishy delicacy, they rolled out the red carpet for Prince Andrew.
Azerbaijan is a nation where you can bathe in crude oil to improve your health. Or just because you can, if you have the money.
There is no evidence the royal engaged in inappropriate behaviour. But he spent time with unsavoury people.
Critics are accusing the Azerbaijani government of carrying out a “full-spectrum influence campaign” in the West. This includes lobbying, PR, lavish gifts, and junkets.
The goal of this campaign was to sway Western opinion and it appeared to have worked.
In recent years, the nation enjoyed increasing support from the UK.
Prince Andrew was an advocate for closer ties with Azerbaijan.
This was despite reports of widespread torture and repression in the nation.
According to The Economist, caviar diplomacy diverts “attention abroad from its (a nation’s) human-rights record and discourage the opposition at home”. In the case of Azerbaijan, through lavish extravaganzas and high-end lobbying.”
Why is this relevant? Jeffrey Epstein described the Royal as a “useful idiot.”
The Duke linked him up with contacts who wanted deals in obscure countries, according to biographer Tina Brown.
Epstein would fly Prince Andrew to meet governments who could not refuse to see him because he was a royal. The now-dead pedophile would come with him as an ‘investment adviser’ to His Royal Highness.
Moreover, Epstein would then negotiate deals for his personal gain.
During his time as UK special representative, Prince Andrew helped negotiate several energy deals, according to The Economist.
In 2017, Britain was the largest investor in Azerbaijan, mainly through BP oil and companies related to resources.
As well, the UK has invested about 20 billion pounds in the country.
According to The Daily Mail: “In Azerbaijan, Prince Andrew is routinely described as a ‘dear guest’ by the leader of a country that ranks as one of the most corrupt in the world on the Transparency Index.
President Ilham Aliyev took the royal to his spa, which employed the blind masseur, described as the best in the world.
Moreover, former UK PM Tony Blair had a private meeting with Prince Andrew in 2009 after they stayed in the same hotel in Baku.
Andrew was on a private three-day visit ‘with an element of work’. But he had previously established a wealth of contacts while promoting British business interests in his envoy role.
Andrew was in 2014 censured for sneaking off twice to Azerbaijan.
Moreover, the Duke of York flew by private jet to meet President Aliyev. The royal stayed in the capital, Baku, during one ‘private’ trip.
A British Government source tipped off the pressure group, Platform, which campaigns against abuses associated with the energy industry.
Its spokesman, Emma Hughes, accused the prince of having a ‘cosy relationship’ with the President.
The Duke of York had also summoned Britain’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan for a meeting at Buckingham Palace.
The royal made eight visits to Azerbaijan in six years. Two were private, arousing suspicions he has business interests there, including a golf complex. There was a total of 12 jaunts to Baku.
The business claims have been vigorously denied by Buckingham Palace. Categorically. Vehemently. Absolutely denied.
At Andrew’s 60th party, a friend of Aliyev donated caviar and a monster bottle of wine. The links don’t stop there – the friend’s wife is the President’s niece.
The donor, Soheil Dadfar, was thanked on the menu. It just happened to drop into the hands of The Daily Mail.
So what does the President of Azerbaijan want from his caviar diplomacy? Well one thing you can do is launder money overseas.
According to a report from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, the regime parked money in London. The President and two daughters — Leyla and Arzu — own a penthouse in London worth $26 million.
Finally, Prince Andrew is friends with Layla.
In 2021, The Guardian reported The Queen’s estate launched a review into a £67m London property, bought from the family.
The Pandora papers revealed a network of offshore companies linked to Aliyev and associates. They traded £400m of UK property over 15 years.
Properties include a London mansion worth $25 million, a flat near Hyde Park worth $8 million, nine waterfront mansions in Dubai valued at $44 million, a dacha near Moscow worth $37 million, and a villa in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary worth $ 1.1 million.
These are just “the known properties”.
But it’s not just about money.
The Economist: “The government practises a revolving-door policy with critics, locking them up and releasing them when it is expedient.”
But Azerbaijan wants more than honorary membership of the European community. Exactly what that is remains unclear.
Moreover, the nation faces increased sanctions and is finding it difficult to steal from its people and launder money. This is due to human rights, money laundering and election rigging.
But whatever it does, it involves oil, property and the provision of caviar.