Glamour queen is a long way from Uzbekistan reality

Gulnara Karimova has been called all of these things. But all the eldest daughter of Uzbekistan’s ageing authoritarian leader appears to want is for people to like her.

Over the weekend, the producers of New York’s Fashion Week cancelled a show by Ms Karimova amid pressure from a human rights group and a planned protest over the use of child labour in her country. In a face-saving gesture, her backers revived the event yesterday at ultra-chic Cipriani on 42nd Street.

Turning up at fashion shows and dropping by at the Cannes Film Festival is part of a carefully nurtured public relations exercise by Ms Karimova, who, despite her frivolous image, is seen as a possible successor to her father.

On the international scene, she is known as a fashionable jet-setter. In her home country, Ms Karimova is feted by official media as an accomplished diplomat, academic and philanthropist devoted to the cause of disadvantaged women and children.

But to her many detractors, the 39-year-old is a “robber baron” who has pillaged businesses in Uzbekistan and luxuriates in self-imposed European exile, while many in her country endure crushing poverty.

Uzbekistan, a mainly Muslim nation of almost 28 million people, is part of a key route supplying Nato troops in Afghanistan.

It is rich in natural gas and gold, as well as being one of the world largest cotton producers, making it potentially attractive to investors.

Although officially touted as an international stateswoman, Ms Karimova rarely appears to bother with such matters.

Her official website conveys the image of a carefree fashionista obsessed with gaudy jewellery flitting between charity events in Uzbekistan and gala evenings in Europe. She appears to take inordinate pride in being photographed with the likes of former US president Bill Clinton, singer Elton John and action film star Steven Seagal.

Another website, Googoosha.uz, documents Ms Karimova’s short-lived pop career (she sang under the name GooGoosha – reputedly her father’s favourite nickname for her). One video depicts a flying sports car wending its way to a palace in verdant mountains, greeted by Ms Karimova in a flowing white dress.

On top of all that, she heads her country’s diplomatic mission at the United Nations’ office in Geneva, where she lives with her son and daughter.

What the Harvard regional studies masters course graduate’s websites do not mention are her widely alleged links to obscure Swiss-registered Zeromax GmbH, a failed holding company believed to have been under her control.

In a letter to Swiss magazine Le Temps earlier this year, Ms Karimova denied ever having had any ties to Zeromax.

Whatever the truth, the slow-motion collapse of Zeromax amid a mountain of debt has set some talking about her future.

The winding-down of Zeromax is seen by some as a way of erasing Ms Karimova’s image as the oligarch and thereby making her more palatable to the general public.

What might come next for her was the subject of a passing remark in a cable from the US embassy in Uzbekistan written in February last year and obtained by WikiLeaks.

“Karimova has always been very visible on Uzbekistan’s political and cultural stage, and some local observers believe that she is the being groomed as the president’s successor,” the cable said.

Islam Karimov, 73, has ruled for two decades, mercilessly stamping out opposition and any signs of Islamic radicalism. Rumours have long abounded of Mr Karimov’s ill-health, and government websites heavily edit his photographs to hide signs of ageing.

If his daughter’s carefully nurtured domestic image as a kind-hearted philanthropist is aimed at ensuring a soft-landing for her after her father is no longer running the country, it is far from certain that anybody is buying the line. Another leaked US cable from 2005 spelled out allegations normally reserved for whispered conversations.

“The discussion of the honest, hardworking [Gulnara], looking out for the best interests of her country, likely irks the many business people who have been crushed by Karimova and her greed as well as the general public, who view her as something of a robber baron,” one dispatch read.