Last week, we published a blog post discussing the new investor in Arsenal, Uzbeki steel magnate Alisher Usmanov. I quoted extensively from an article by Craig Murray (former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan) on his website, craigmurray.co.uk. That article has now been removed "at the instigation of Schillings, lawyers retained by Usmanov." This morning I also [.

To follow-up briefly once again on the ongoing Alisher Usmanov saga, his high-priced lawyers have finally gotten their way and Craig Murray's website has been taken down. This follows the massive legal pressure put on by Schillings to websites such as this one, that only seek to put into the open claims by Murray which [...]

We now perhaps know why it was this week that Craig Murray's website, which related Uzbeki/Russian oligarch's Alisher Usmanov's time in prison in the 1980s (he was eventually pardoned, but not by Gorbachev as his lawyer's wistfully imply; rather, by Putin, a close friend of the Uzbeki) and his connections to the very shady Uzbeki [...]

In a debate on the European Union's common foreign policy on energy in the European Parliament on Tuesday please, try to stay awake in class Tom Wise, UK Independent Party MEP, put onto the record some of Craig Murray's revelations about Alisher Usmanov. Thomas Wise (IND/DEM). – Madam President, when the EU talks of [...]

With Alisher Usmanov increasing his stake in Arsenal to 23%, Arsene Wenger has warned that English football is losing it's soul. The Frenchman backs his statement by speaking of stadiums emptying, media coverage becoming dominant, and the clubs becoming less about the supporters and more about the investors.
Not only Arsenal fans, but all football fans should listen to the man.

I can't help but be bewildered by this article on the Sunday Times Online by Mark Franchetti. It's so candy-coated and awash in deceptive if not Orwellian jargon that only a mentally handicapped person would believe a single word. If this is the start of the great 'Usmanov is just a regular, good-hearted bloke' crusade, then the insincerity was undermined by a strenuous, unconvincing effort.

In the latest disturbing news in Arsenal's ownership struggle, the British government this week stonewalled questions in the Houses of Parliament about Alisher Usmanov, everyone's favourite obese oligarch. Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish reports received from British embassies relating to Alisher Usmanov.