Brezhnev Kin Accused of Taking Bribe

In another move to combat top-level corruption, the Soviet government announced today that the late President Leonid I. Brezhnev’s son-in-law has been arrested and accused of taking bribes.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov announced the arrest of Yuri Churbanov, a former deputy interior minister, during a briefing for Soviet and foreign reporters.

The Tass press agency also carried a one-sentence announcement of the arrest, suggesting the government may be planning to make an example of Churbanov for alleged abuse of his authority.

Neither announcement mentioned Churbanov’s relationship with Brezhnev, who was the Soviet leader from 1964 until his death in November, 1982.

Target of Gorbachev

But bribe-taking and cronyism during Brezhnev’s tenure have come under harsh criticism in the two years since Mikhail S. Gorbachev became Communist Party leader.

Gerasimov said he had been asked by a reporter to confirm whether Churbanov had been taken into custody.

“He has been arrested, an investigation is under way and he is accused of corruption and bribe-taking,” Gerasimov said.

He did not say if formal charges have been filed and declined to give further details. Gerasimov said reporters’ questions about when and where Churbanov was arrested and where he was being held were “excessive.”

Circus Scandal

It was not clear why the 50-year-old Churbanov was arrested at this time, or whether the arrest was connected with a circus bribery scandal that touched the Brezhnev family in 1982.

Soviet sources leaked reports at that time that a top circus official friendly with Churbanov’s wife, Galina Brezhnev, had been arrested and that a valuable art collection was confiscated from the apartment of another circus performer friendly with Brezhnev’s daughter.

One of the accusations during the circus scandal was that the troupe’s management was taking bribes in return for including members on trips abroad.

Churbanov married Galina Brezhnev when her father was in power and in 1980 was appointed deputy chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which oversees uniformed police and issuance of travel and emigration visas.

Removed From Post

He was removed from that post two years ago and reportedly transferred to other duties within the ministry.

Gorbachev’s crackdown on corrupt officials has been linked to removal of several members of the ruling Politburo, including last week’s ouster of Dinmukhamed Kunayev.

During the Communist Party Central Committee meeting that removed Kunayev, Gorbachev gave a lengthy speech that lashed out at the Brezhnev years as a time of economic stagnation, corruption and moral decline.

The denunciation of a previous leadership has long been the practice of Communist Party chiefs.