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OC Media
3 days ago
- OC Media
Former German MP convicted of giving bribes on behalf of Azerbaijan
Sign in or or Become a member to unlock the audio version of this article Join the voices Aliyev wants to silence. For over eight years, OC Media has worked with fearless journalists from Azerbaijan — some of whom now face decades behind bars — to bring you the stories the regime is afraid will get out. Help us fuel Aliyev's fears — become an OC Media member today Become a member Eduard Lintner, a former member of the German Parliament, has been convicted of bribing officials on behalf of the Azerbaijani government. A Munich court handed him a nine-month suspended prison sentence, which may still be appealed. The case stems from a now eight-year old investigation, referred to as the 'Azerbaijani Laundromat', uncovered by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in 2017. 'Azerbaijan's ruling elite used a $2.9 billion slush fund to enrich themselves and pay European politicians to polish the country's image amid international criticism of its human rights record', the OCCRP wrote, describing the scandal. Lintner pleaded not guilty in the case, claiming that he was simply lobbying on behalf of Azerbaijan with 'honourable motives'. In addition to Lintner's sentence, the Munich court ordered for almost $130,000 to be confiscated from the widower of late-German MP and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of Europe (PACE), Karin Strenz, who died in 2021. The court said that Strenz had been bribed by Lintner, as well as directly by Baku, to portray Azerbaijan in a more favourable light within PACE. The funds in question represent 'the value of proceeds from the offence', a court spokesperson told the OCCRP. Advertisement Previously, charges against two other individuals in connection to the same 'Azerbaijani Laundromat' scheme were dropped after they confessed. The trial of a fourth individual has been delayed. In a statement on Wednesday, Maíra Martini, the CEO of anti-corruption NGO Transparency International said that the 'verdict shows that justice is possible, even in complex transnational corruption cases. Authorities in other countries linked to the Azerbaijani Laundromat scheme should follow Germany's example and take action to ensure that those who took bribes and helped whitewash repression do not escape scrutiny'. Lintner's conviction in the Azerbaijani Laundromat affair is the latest case involving alleged bribes from Baku toward foreign politicians. In May 2024, Henry Cuellar, a member of the US Congress from Texas, was indicted, along with his wife, for reportedly accepting around $600,000 in bribes from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank. Cuellar was nonetheless reelected later that year. Earlier in July 2025, the US Justice Department said the criminal proceedings against Cuellar would be moving forward. However, the New York Times reported that related charges against Cuellar under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) might be dropped amidst an ongoing push from the administration of President Donald Trump to 'scale back such prosecutions under the law'.
OC Media
3 days ago
- OC Media
Why I'm begging the universe for Azerbaijan not to recognise the Circassian Genocide
Join the voices Aliyev wants to silence. For over eight years, OC Media has worked with fearless journalists from Azerbaijan — some of whom now face decades behind bars — to bring you the stories the regime is afraid will get out. Help us fuel Aliyev's fears — become an OC Media member today Become a member Yes, I'm back again with yet another newsletter about the Circassian Genocide. I promise, I'm not trying to meet any quotas and Robin is not forcing me to write these at gunpoint. I've just been in a perpetual state of annoyance ever since I read this article on APA, an Azerbaijani pro-government media outlet, about how important it was for the world to recognise the Circassian Genocide as 'another stain on Russia'. Important context: APA's content is objectively not journalism — it's drivel dictated by the government that has laid total waste to independent media in the country, rendering the scene virtually barren. This article was born out of an ongoing diplomatic row between Baku and Moscow, which began in December last year after the fatal crash in Kazakhstan's Aktau of an Azerbaijani Airlines (AZAL) flight headed from Baku to Grozny. In the months following the crash, Azerbaijan has gone from hinting at Russia possibly having shot down the plane to straight up accusing it of doing so and covering up its tracks. The dramatic fallout between the two peaked in June, with the two countries detaining quite a few of each other's citizens. Azerbaijani pro-government media was locked and loaded, regularly generating criticism of Russia. There is no shadow of a doubt that this APA article on the Circassian Genocide is part of that campaign. It quite extensively details the events leading up to the genocide and its impact on the North Caucasus and the Circassians — the vast majority of whom were exiled from the region. It criticises Russia's refusal to acknowledge the genocide and it's eradication of the Circassian language, culture, and historical memory. Advertisement It says Azerbaijan and the Circassians were bound together by 'collective traumas caused by imperial policies' — either the Russian Empire's or the Soviet Union's. It notes that Circassian diaspora organisations in Turkey were among the first to not only express condolences to Azerbaijan over the AZAL crash, but they also condemned the act 'as another example of imperial violence and disregard for law', declaring that 'Russian imperial brutality is not just the pain of one nation, but a shared grief for all peoples of the region'. It also claims that interest in the Circassian Genocide in Azerbaijan was growing among local media, researchers, and civil society activists — all driven closer by the shared suffering wrought on them by Russia. Could this be a sign that Azerbaijan might recognise the genocide? Gosh, I certainly hope not. We've seen Azerbaijan tout its championing of oppressed indigenous peoples' rights before with its targeting of Western European nations with brutal colonial histories — most notably France, which openly and staunchly supports Armenia. In that absurd episode, we saw France accuse Azerbaijan of supporting riots in one of its overseas territories, New Caledonia, claiming that Baku 'made a deal' with Caledonian pro-independence leaders. In the months since, we've seen an evidently government-linked Baku Initiative Group host a variety of seminars and conferences decrying the effects of European colonialism on indigenous people around the world. While I recognise that the recognition of other nations' tragedies will always be political in nature, I do want to see more countries recognise it, as with Ukraine's own recognition of the Circassian Genocide earlier this year or Georgia's recognition in 2011. However, I believe an Azerbaijani recognition will do the cause more harm than good. Aside from it coming from nowhere, it would be based on a disingenuous 'anti-colonial' narrative, made even more absurd by Azerbaijan's own miserable track record. Let's not forget the Aliyev regime continues to oppress its own indigenous Talysh population and that it ethnically cleansed Nagorno-Karabakh of Armenians in September 2023. On the global stage, Azerbaijan also materially supports the Israeli warmachine in its ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Would the Circassians celebrate an Azerbaijani recognition? Err, possibly, but that remains to be seen, and I'll sleep better if it was met with condemnation instead.
OC Media
6 days ago
- OC Media
Ukraine signs gas deal with Azerbaijan's SOCAR
Sign in or or Become a member to unlock the audio version of this article Join the voices Aliyev wants to silence. For over eight years, OC Media has worked with fearless journalists from Azerbaijan — some of whom now face decades behind bars — to bring you the stories the regime is afraid will get out. Help us fuel Aliyev's fears — become an OC Media member today Become a member Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz has signed its first deal with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) to import natural gas via the Trans-Balkan route. Naftogaz announced the deal via a press release on Monday. 'This is a small volume but strategically important step that paves the way for long-term cooperation. It is also another example of diversifying supply sources and strengthening Ukraine's energy security', the CEO of Naftogaz, Serhii Koretskyi, said. In the press release, Naftogaz also extended its gratitude to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, the Ukrainian government, and Ukraine's Energy Ministry 'for their support in reaching this agreement', as well as to its Azerbaijani colleagues 'for their trust'. Ukraine announced the new Trans-Balkan route through Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova in May 2025 'Having phased out Russian energy carriers, Ukraine, like our partners in the EU, is actively working to find alternative gas supply routes. The use of the Trans-Balkan route is important in this context', a press release by Ukraine's Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said at the time. A source told Reuters in June that the new route could allow Ukraine to import up to 1 billion cubic metres of gas between June–October 2025, with a daily import capacity of 7,000 cubic metres. Advertisement The Ukrainian government reportedly previously announced that the country needed to import at least 4 billion cubic metres of gas for the 2025–2026 heating season. As part of its effort to shift away from dependency on Russian energy, the EU has increasingly turned toward Azerbaijan. However, there are concerns that Azerbaijan still works to launder Russian fossil fuels to be sold in the European market. Previously, in May, the UK sanctioned a state-owned Azerbaijani tanker as part of efforts to block Russia's oil trading shadow fleet. An investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found that the ship in question, the Zangazur, was owned by the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company and that the Azerbaijani government owned the entirety of the company's shares. Based on shipping data, the OCCRP recorded the Zangazur paying regular visits to the Russian port of Primorsk, west of Saint Petersburg, which features an oil terminal, as well as to the Turkish port of Nemrut, where Azerbaijan's state-owned STAR oil refinery is located. According to data collected by the advocacy group Global Witness, Azerbaijan's STAR refinery processed a large amount of Russian crude oil in 2024. 'The vast majority of STAR products imported by the EU this year have likely been made from Russian oil', Global Witness stated in a July 2024 report. Such imports follow a 2022 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), according to which Azerbaijan would double its supply of gas to the EU, which would allegedly, as European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen highlighted at the time, 'compensate for cuts in supplies of Russian gas and contribute significantly to Europe's security of supply'.
