Leonid Kostandov

Leonid Kostandov (Russian: Леонид Костандов; 27 November 1915 – 5 September 1984) was a Soviet engineer and politician who served as the minister of the chemical industry between 1965 and 1980 and as the deputy premier from 1980 to his death.

[1][3] The same year he was appointed deputy prime minister responsible for chemical and related industries.

[1] Kostandov was a close friend of Armand Hammer and, in 1981 following US President Ronald Reagan lifting the United States agricultural embargo against the Soviet Union on 25 April 1981, assisted the David Murdoch and Occidental Petroleum controlled Iowa Beef Processors (IBP), which was the biggest and most advanced beef-packer in the world, to gain access to the Soviet market for IBP's United States beef.

[4] Kostandov died of a heart attack on 5 September 1984 while he was visiting a fair in Leipzig, East Germany.

[1][3] He was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis after the official funeral ceremony held in Red Square, Moscow.