Tulip Siddiq faces fresh questions over her presence at the signing of a billion-dollar arms deal with Vladimir Putin
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City Minister Tulip Siddiq faces fresh questions after videos emerged of her with an official delegation at the signing of a billion-dollar arms deal and a nuclear power plant project with Vladimir Putin. The footage shows Ms Siddiq visiting the Kremlin as part of an entourage led by her aunt Sheikh Hasina Wazed - recently ousted as dictator of Bangladesh - and appears to contradict previous claims that it was a ‘family’ occasion.
![[Russian President Vladimir Putin, third right, and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, third left, tulip siddiq MP (left) attend a signing ceremony in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan 15, 2013]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/22/93292787-14207643-Russian_President_Vladimir_Putin_third_right_and_Bangladesh_Prim-a-1_1734559556237.jpg)
It comes nine years after The Mail on Sunday revealed that a smiling Ms Siddiq had been photographed at the 2013 event alongside Putin and her aunt, who was Bangladesh’s prime minister at the time, as well as her mother Rehana and younger sister Azmina.
![[Chancellor Rachel Reeves and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury Tulip Siddiq meet senior bank leaders to discuss investment in the UK ahead of the International Investment Summit on 14 October]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/21/93292813-14207643-image-a-41_1734559188429.jpg)
At the time, Labour insisted that Ms Siddiq - then a parliamentary candidate - had been ‘totally separate from any official delegation but was invited to an event with her family’. But the videos - which were obtained by the Mail on Sunday from the Bangladeshi media and the archives of the Associated Press news agency - reveal that the ‘family event’ was actually an official ceremony inside the Kremlin.
![[Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in a ceremony marking the delivery of Russian nuclear fuel to the first power unit of the Rooppur NPP in Bangladesh]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/22/93292867-14207643-image-a-42_1734559202324.jpg)
They show Putin and Hasina sitting at an ornate desk with both the Russian and Bangladeshi flags draped on the wall behind them. More than a dozen of Putin’s officials, as well as foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, were in attendance. Among those standing in the front row of the Bangladeshi delegation were Ms Siddiq, her sister and the country’s then foreign minister, Dipu Moni.
