In early March, Investigative Committee chairman Alexander Bastrykin proposed restoring full confiscation of property for those convicted of corruption. The idea revived comparisons with Soviet practice, when major cases against officials were often accompanied by the seizure of assets they had accumulated.
One example was a report published by Literaturnaya Gazeta on November 12, 1980 about Vyacheslav Voronkov, the head of the Sochi city executive committee. According to the newspaper, on his first day in office in 1971 he received a set of cognacs from “admirers,” followed by baskets of delicacies and flowers. Later, a trade official named Bondarenko brought him food in Moscow and handed over cash for “pocket needs,” then went on to receive promotions.
The article said Voronkov repaid such generosity by helping his benefactors. One store director, for example, was given an apartment ahead of others in line. During searches, investigators reportedly found a metal box embedded in the floor containing savings books and jewelry, while the inventory of seized property filled half a volume.
The confiscated items included diamond rings, bracelets, earrings, watches and other valuables. Voronkov and his former wife tried to recover some of the property, claiming that certain pieces had been gifts from relatives, but investigators rejected those arguments. He was ultimately sentenced to 13 years in prison, and all of his assets were confiscated, including a hidden Ford registered in another person’s name.
An even more prominent case involved former deputy interior minister Yuri Churbanov, who was arrested on January 14, 1987. Brezhnev’s son-in-law, prosecutors said, had protected the so-called cotton mafia in Uzbekistan, where about $6.5 billion was allegedly stolen over a decade.
Churbanov was also convicted of misappropriating 10,000 rubles from the Interior Ministry to build a wine cellar at his dacha. He and six other senior defendants were sentenced in December 1988, and their property was confiscated. Although Soviet law allowed for the death penalty in such a case, prosecutors did not seek it because he cooperated with the investigation. In July 1993, he was pardoned by decree of Boris Yeltsin.