Islam Karimov was an Uzbek politician who had a net worth of $1 billion. Islam Karimov served as the first president of Uzbekistan, being elected

What was Islam Karimov’s Net Worth?

after the country’s independence in 1991 and remaining in office until his death in 2016. An authoritarian leader, he ran a regime in which human rights were abused and political opponents were killed.

Early Life and Education

Islam Karimov was born on January 30, 1938 in Samarkand, Soviet Uzbekistan to Sanobar and Abdug’ani, both civil servants. He spent parts of his childhood in an orphanage. Following high school graduation in 1955, Karimov attended the Central Asian Polytechnic Institute, which he graduated from in 1960 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He later earned a master’s degree in economics from Tashkent State University of Economics in 1967.

Rising Through the Political Ranks

Karimov, an engineer by training, first served his country’s Ministry of Water Resources. Beginning in 1966 he rose steadily through the ranks of the Uzbek State Planning Committee, which he headed during the 1980s. Karimov became the first secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan in 1989, remaining in that position until the party was renamed the People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan in 1991.

Islam Karimov

(ALEXANDER NEMENOV AFP/ Getty Images) President of Uzbekistan In March 1990, Karimov became the first president of Soviet Uzbekistan. The next year, following the failed August Coup in Moscow, Karimov declared Uzbekistan an independent nation. He went on to win the presidential election at the end of the year, although the voting was reportedly under rigged conditions. Karimov became notorious as an authoritarian leader who ran a repressive regime that abused human rights and assassinated dissidents. His administration was known to engage in kidnapping, torture, murder, religious persecution, and financial corruption. Among the most notable instances was the Andijan massacre in May of 2005, when the government deliberately led hundreds of protesters into a trap and summarily shot and murdered them. The regime was also largely focused on anti-Islamism,

and imprisoned and silenced thousands of Uzbek Muslims. In foreign policy, Uzbekistan under Karimov was defined by isolationism. Heavily criticized by both national opponents and international observers, Karimov was able to stay in office after his first term due to a controversial referendum in 1995. He was reelected in 2000, 2007, and 2015, serving until his death in 2016. Personal Life and Death In 1964, Karimov married his first wife, Natalya Kuchmi. They had a son named Petr before divorcing around 1966. He later married economist Tatyana Akbarovna in 1967. They had two daughters with him: the controversial former businesswoman Gulnara and the diplomat and philanthropist Lola. The couple also had five grandchildren. At the end of August 2016, Karimov fell unconscious and was admitted to the Central Clinical Hospital. He had suffered a massive stroke and went into cardiac arrest. After being resuscitated, Karimov was left in a coma and was put on a ventilator. On September 2, he died of multi-organ failure and another cardiac arrest.