On January 20, 2024, Anastasia Lavrina posted on her X profile that Joaquinito Maria Alogo de Obono, president of the International Association Against Corruption, would be giving an exclusive interview to “reveal the work of the Armenian lobby in France”.
Anastasia Lavrina's LinkedIn profile leaves no doubt about her affiliation and “independence”: she refers to herself as a member of Azerbaijan's ruling party, “New Azerbaijan”, and has pinned a selfie of herself and Ilham Aliyev on her Twitter profile.
Joaquinito Maria Alogo de Obono represents the “new guard” of the Azerbaijani lobby in France. In 2023, he attended more than 6 events organized by Azerbaijani diplomacy in France, mostly at the invitation of Aytan Mouradova.
This regular participation in Azerbaijani activities in France is no secret: Joaquinito Maria Alogo de Obono himself promotes it on his social networks. He seems to have started frequenting the Azerbaijani representation in November 2022.
He does even more: he appears several times on Azerbaijani television to defend the rhetoric of the Aliyev regime, whether denouncing the “Armenian occupation” or attacking France's position on Azerbaijan.
Joaquinito Alogo de Obono has also been a regular guest at the Kazakh embassy since, apparently, October 2022. He is close to Aijamal Aitymbetova, organizer of cultural events for Uzbekistan at UNESCO, who herself has close ties with the Azerbaijani embassy.
As with Azerbaijan, Joaquinito Alogo de Obono appears on Kazakh television to justify the withdrawal of political refugee status from Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, whose extradition the Kazakh authorities are demanding.
It's worth pointing out here the paradox, for an “anti-corruption representative”, of consorting with representatives of the Azerbaijani and Kazakh dictatorships, respectively 157th and 101st out of 180 on Transparency International's 2022 ranking of perceived corruption.
The fact that Joaquinito Alogo de Obono presents himself as President of the International Association Against Corruption (IAAC) serves as a guarantee, and lends credence to the Azerbaijani propaganda he disseminates during his speeches.
The IAAC, created in December 2021, has not produced a single publication. Its last “news” item dates back to July 2021, and the “actions” implemented are never specifically mentioned, on a site capture dating back to July 2023.
It is also amusing to note, thanks to the various backups of the site, that between August 2022 (and perhaps even December 2021) and July 2023, the number of procedures initiated by IAAC has not changed.
IAAC's social networks, meanwhile, appear to be nothing more than showcases for the promotion of Joaquinito Alogo de Obono.
It's also worth noting that Joaquinito Alogo de Obono has been offering PR and communications consultancy services since October 2020, something he is obviously careful not to say on his LinkedIn profile.
Joaquinito Alogo de Obono is therefore a public relations consultant using an anti-corruption showcase association, in reality an empty shell, to varnish his public interventions in the service of the Azerbaijani dictatorship.
