Uzbek cotton scandal
[2] Despite this, Rashidov maintained control of Uzbekistan, receiving a total of four billion rubles from the Soviet government for non-existent cotton production.
[1] Below Rashidov, widespread corruption existed, as well; the heads of the regional committees of the Uzbek SSR owned large mansions and frequently flaunted the law in their actions.
Andropov, who was on poor terms with Rashidov, launched an anti-corruption campaign with the intention of restoring public trust in government institutions.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs established the Central Scientific Research Laboratory for Identifying and Eliminating Causes and Conditions of Economic Crimes (Russian: Центральная Научно-исследовательская Лаборатория по выявлению и устранению причин и условий способствующих экономическим преступлениям, romanized: Tsentralnaya Nauchno-issledovatelskaya Laboratoriya po vyyavleniyu i ustraneniyu prichin i uslovy sposobstvuyushchikh ekonomicheskim prestupleniyam) or TsNIL (Russian: ЦНИЛ).
The TsNIL revealed the full extent of corruption occurring in Central Asia's republics, leading to Andropov to request Rashidov's resignation in January 1983.
However, Rashidov refused to resign, and the Central Committee adopted a resolution a month later requesting the Procurator General of the Soviet Union investigate corruption in Uzbekistan.
[3] In April 1983, Telman Gdlyan and Nikolai Veniaminovich Ivanov [ru] were placed at the helm of a commission for investigating the cotton scandal by the Procurator General.
[3] In the summer of 1984, a delegation of Central Committee officials led by Yegor Ligachyov arrived in Tashkent to elect a successor to Rashidov.
[3] On 11 August 1984, Abduvohid Karimov [uz], former head of the Bukhara Regional Committee, was arrested in Qarshi and flown to Moscow, where he was interned at Lefortovo Prison until his 1987 trial.
Arrested individuals who were members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs testified about the widespread bribery and organised crime connections within the Uzbek intelligence services.
In April 1985, permission was granted by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to arrest Gaipov, after information about him having supported the rise of Ergashev and received bribes from people throughout the region came to light.
As part of glasnost and perestroika, the cotton scandal was further publicised, resulting in a 23 January 1988 article in Pravda revealing the full extent of corruption to the public.
The Soviet government additionally announced its intention to end the practise of using child labour to farm cotton in Uzbekistan.
Georgy Razumovsky, Ligachyov, Mikhail Solomentsev, and Viktor Grishin were all suspected of taking bribes in order to turn a blind eye to ongoing corruption.
On 25 December 1991, a day before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Uzbek leader Islam Karimov pardoned all individuals involved in the scandal who had been imprisoned in Uzbekistan.
