Kazakhstan dictator axes paper critical of Tony Blair's £8million job as adviser

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Tony Blair is at the centre of a press freedom row over the impending closure of a newspaper which has been critical of his £8 million-a-year consultancy deal with a dictator.

Respublika, an opposition newspaper in Kazakhstan, has been ordered to close by the country’s notorious president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has controversially hired the former Prime Minister to advise him.

Critics have accused Mr Blair of ‘whitewashing’ the president’s image and human-rights record.