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...
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