Ethics officials in the US waved off the fact that SOCAR had spent $750,000 to wine and dine American congressmen at the recent “US-Azerbaijan: Vision for the Future” conference. Members of the congressional delegation had been gifted silk scarves, crystal tea sets, rugs, and free travel. Lobbyists in the US and Europe happily accepted millions of dollars to quash a damning report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Aliyev’s operatives reportedly spent €30 million to persuade members of the Council of Europe, whose sole mission was to bolster democracy on the continent, to ignore the long
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