Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has reportedly banned a critic from his page on the website for raising his friendship with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and support of work funded by the authoritarian Kazakh regime.

Kazakhstan's government set up a foundation called WikiBilim last year to create material for a Kazakh Wikipedia. The organisation is backed by Kazakhstan's sovereign oil wealth fund and run by Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, an ex-government official.

The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organisation that runs Wikipedia, provided a 16,600 dollars grant from visitor donations.

According to the Telegraph, Wikipedia contributors in the West have questioned whether the Wikimedia Foundation and Wales should be supporting a project backed by a government that has been accused of launching 'crackdown on free speech'.