They don’t specify, but based on the period they’re talking about I’d put money on it being related to the cotton scandal, to pripiski - that is, the Soviet ten

They don’t specify, but based on the period they’re talking about I’d put money on it being related to the cotton scandal, to pripiski - that is, the Soviet tendency to make up production figures. When glasnost happened in ‘88 the fiction collapsed, although not immediately - most cotton producers continued to bullshit about their numbers until the mid 90s, while the industry dwindled due to lack of water for irrigation and desertification.