The Missing Uzbek Billions

Uzbekistan, one of the Soviet Union's 15 republics, is rich in cotton, fruit -- and corruption. According to Pravda and other publications, the republic's leading government and Communist Party officials shared in the embezzlement of $6.5 billion during the 1970s and early 1980s. They also permitted Mafia-style crime families to thrive on such supposedly capitalist rackets as drugs, prostitution, gambling and murder for hire. A number of officials helped themselves to the republic's cotton-growing revenues by overstating the size of the republic's cotton crops, then skimming off part of the proceeds. Among those recently arrested are Uzbekistan's former premier, the local party second secretary and dozens of Communist functionaries and policemen.

Although the Uzbek affair began unfolding several years ago, the new disclosures seem to mark a new phase in General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's anticorruption drive. They also highlight his effort to blame former Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev for the country's continuing economic problems. Brezhnev cronies and relatives are among those implicated; Son-in-Law Yuri Churbanov could face the death penalty if convicted on charges that he accepted $1 million in bribes while serving as the Kremlin's First Deputy Interior Minister.