Technically, Caviar Connection addresses corruption in all the nations in the Caspian Sea region, including Turkmenistan, which is bad news for Sting’s image, because he hypocritically and unrepentantly accepted a lucrative gig from the dictator’s spoiled daughter. However, the focus falls squarely on Azerbaijan. Aliyev’s father was a former KGB official, who came to power in a post-independence coup, with Putin’s blessing. He soon turned over the family dynasty to his son, whose administration was repeatedly likened to the Corleone Mafia family in leaked diplomatic cables.
Despite the many political prisoners held by the Aliyev regime, it still sought the legitimacy of full membership in the Council of Europe (the EU’s leading human rights body), so they bribed their way in. Bringer does indeed establish that pretty conclusively, with the help of Azerbaijan’s former ambassador to the Council, whistle-blower Arif Mammadov, who was basically the regime’s bag man.
Ismayilova was one of those political prisoners the Council ignored. While she was always independent, she wasn’t very political, until she saw her colleague brutally beaten by Aliyev’s thugs. However, the crude and invasive blackmail tactics the regime unleashed against her are probably even more reprehensible.
