ABSTRACT
In November 1990, a draft "union treaty" aimed at defining future relationships between the center and the republics was published in Moscow with Gorbachev as its chief advocate. This event forced the leadership in Uzbekistan to cross a Rubicon: President Karimov announced that—given Uzbekistan's declaration of sovereignty—he had no choice but to take a position against the proposed draft. President Karimov and those around him responded to the challenges by promising new opportunities for all. One of Karimov's early moves was to promise a substantial transfer of land to private utilization. Karimov and his supporters were resolutely pushing the "transition to market economy". Karimov predicted optimistically that in Uzbekistan "this will be shorter and less painful than in other regions of the country". A primary goal of Karimov's economic policy was somehow to secure from foreign investors the capital that Moscow always denied to Uzbekistan to develop its own industry.
