Azerbaijan may not mean that much to you. In the west it is perhaps best known as a plucky winner of the Eurovision song contest, or maybe easy opponents in qualification for another international football tournament. It has oil, a Caspian Sea coastline and 10 million people.

But there is another side.

Journalism is a crime in my country – the numbers say it all: 10 out of 158 political prisoners in Azerbaijan are journalists. The last remaining independent news agency, Turan, stopped work last week.

There is a high price for defiance. I was subjected to blackmail with intimate videos, filmed by secret services in my private home. I was jailed for a litany of trumped-up charges. I was not alone.

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The Azerbaijani regime has a strong rationale for such oppression. The lack of independent media and civil society secures absolute impunity for corruption – a free hand for the elite to build their hotels and develop their mining interests. They don’t want to be questioned on where the wealth comes from and why the public money does not serve public interests.

Corruption paralyses education and healthcare while the country’s ruling family and their entourage enrich themselves at the expense of the ordinary people.

Meanwhile, those who put activists in jail, oppress the people and paralyse civil society enjoy impunity for stealing people’s opportunity and freedoms. And they remain free and powerful enough to continue repression. They invest their money in democracies, where property rights are respected, unlike in Azerbaijan. They go to western countries and receive quality medical care – the quality denied to people in Azerbaijan. Their children receive education abroad, and enjoy other products of democracy – the same rights they deny ordinary Azerbaijanis.

Why is Azerbaijan laundering money through the UK? Azerbaijan was one of 15 states to emerge from the Soviet breakup in 1991. While some embraced democracy ​, ​ Azerbaijan succumbed to dynasty politics, ruled by Soviet-era leader Heydar Aliyev and, from 2003, his son Ilham. A well-connected elite shares in the spoils of an oil-rich economy which boomed in the 2000s, while opponents have been locked up and the media muzzled. Bank files now show the elites have siphoned billions out of the country, via lightly-regulated British-incorporated vehicles, to reward lobbyists, buy luxury items and launder cash into the European economy.

The Azerbaijani Laundromat provides a tantalising glimpse into the way this kleptocracy works.

None of the corruption investigations done by me or my colleagues led to investigations by the government of Azerbaijan. Instead, journalists were punished – killed, like Elmar Huseynov; arrested, like me. Kidnapping and beating of journalists became routine in Azerbaijan.

And still, those who punish journalists for telling the truth and deprive them of basic freedoms are welcome in democracies, can freely travel, invest, have bank accounts, and transfer cash that’s been stolen from the state budget. Their hands are shaken by the leaders of countries whose organisations and partners are targeted and harassed in Azerbaijan.

So what is the point in telling the truth? The day I was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, I was asked this very question repeatedly. What is the point of what you are doing and suffering for, asked the court clerk. “No matter what you write, you can’t change anything,” said the prison guard. “Everything you do is right, but it is all in vain,” repeated my cellmate when I was looking for ways to smuggle stories from prison despite the risks. Well, prison is definitely not a meeting point of optimists.

The people of Azerbaijan, whose votes are stolen in elections, see no option for change and no effective support from international institutions. The rule by permanent dynasty seems like an inevitable reality of their life. With the president, who inherited power from his father and appointed his wife as vice-president, enabling her to replace him in his absence, the majority of Azerbaijanis see little possibility for change in the coming election year of 2018.

Elections in Azerbaijan have never met international standards. Observation missions by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have reported major falsifications in previous presidential and parliamentary vote counting. Nevertheless, Azerbaijani TV stations, serving as mouthpieces of the regime, show foreign politicians and members of western parliaments praising the level of democracy in Azerbaijan.

Even now, when prices for Azerbaijan’s main commodity – oil – fall, the government is spending huge amounts to corrupt European institutions and influence politicians, as the Laundromat revelations show. The regime is trying to ease criticism over human rights in order to secure billions of international loans for its mega projects, which will serve merely to prolong its own life.

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Azerbaijanis are not naive. They understand that putting western politicians in service costs money. They also understand why the Azerbaijani regime is trying to block the truth inside and outside the country.

But the government will fail in these attempts to silence everyone, as there is a truth-telling machine in every house – the empty refrigerator. Azerbaijanis understand quite well that the wealth of oligarchs we expose has been built at the expense of their empty fridges and the time will come when the anger of poverty will explode.