Gulnara Karimova, 33, dubbed the “Princess of Uzbeks”, is a Harvard graduate, pop singer, martial arts expert, jewellery designer, wealthy businesswoman and mother of two children.

Now she is being talked about as the next president of the former Soviet state where her father Islam Karimov, who has ruled since 1991, is due to step down in January at the end of his second term. A ruthless leader whose mandate has twice been extended through rigged referendums, the 68-year-old Karimov may yet look for a way to hold on to power, but insiders say he considers Gulnara his natural heir.

“Gulnara has inherited her father’s shrewdness and tough nature,” said a businessman in Tashkent, the capital. “The biggest problem for Karimov is how to step down and secure his own safety and safeguard his fortune. He trusts no one outside his family and his daughter fits the bill perfectly.”

Gulnara, who heads a political think tank and has worked as a diplomat, has recently started to appear regularly in Uzbekistan’s tightly controlled media. The sycophantic coverage portrays her as a Wonder Woman, a successful entrepreneur and caring mother who also finds time to write poetry and help a string of charities.

Although she describes herself as being deeply attached to Uzbekistan’s strict traditional values, she posed in designer clothes last month for the Russian edition of Vogue magazine, which dubbed her “the Star of the East”. Her jet set parties in Moscow, where she lived until recently, attracted some of the most powerful figures among Russia’s elite.

Under the name GooGoosha — apparently the term of endearment that her father uses for her — she recently released her first pop video and her music is constantly played on Uzbek television and radio.

Her father’s brutal regime is described by human rights groups as one of the world’s most repressive. Under Karimov, who enjoys the support of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, opponents have been tortured, jailed in show trials and in some cases boiled to death.

In public at least, Gulnara — whose business empire is said to include shares in a mobile phone network, a cement factory, nightclubs and a fashion label — has expressed only adulation for her father. “I am very proud of him,” she said in a recent interview. “He is a fighter, a professional and he gave me a sense of family. He is my life’s mentor.”

Those who know her say that behind the good looks and stylish manners lurks a tough personality. “She comes across as being very western, educated and worldly,” said one Russian acquaintance, “but deep down she is an oriental — very tough and shrewd, a plotter.”

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