Murray was removed from his post as Ambassador in 2004. He maintains the reason for his dismissal was his public complaint that Uzbekistan’s democracy was no such thing and the country’s human rights record was wretched, despite its utility as a staging area in the War on Terror.

(Murray) recently had his personal blogging site — as well as a number of sites not owned by him and on the same server, taken down by his U.K. hosting company due to pressure from Schillings, a high-powered London Law firm, on behalf of Uzbeki Alisher Usmanov - the latest Russian billionaire to move to the United Kingdom. Usmanov’s lawyers have gone after the host of Murray’s site rather than Craig Murray himself.

Murray’s host was Fasthosts, who pulled the blog last week, according to Bowles. I have sent inquiries to both the hosting company and the attorneys and will update if they respond.

More on this from the Guardian. A number of other users of this host seem also to have been effected, including the website of Tory candidate for London mayor, Boris Johnson, and the blog of Bob Piper, a Labour councilor in Sandwell, Birmingham.