15.08 Uzbek Dictator�s Daughter Finds $200 � and Tweets To Find Owner

MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) � It seems the streets of Uzbekistan�s capital are paved with gold, or at least when the daughter of the former Soviet republic's autocratic president is taking a stroll.

�I was walking along a simple road in Tashkent � found 200 dollars � somebody dropped two beautifully folded banknotes,� Gulnara Karimova said in a tweet Thursday. �I pity the one who lost� the money, she added in another tweet and posted a link to the picture of the banknotes.

What she found amounts to two-thirds of what the average Uzbek earns each month � according to her father, former Communist apparatchik Islam Karimov, who claims the average salary in the resource-rich former Soviet nation exceeded $300 back in 2008.

But international experts think that the real number is below half that amount. The World Bank said last year that Uzbekistan�s gross national income (GNI) is just $1,720 a year � or $143 a month.

The 41-year-old Karimova, a Harvard graduate and divorced mother of two, has created a business empire that includes a telecoms company, cement factories, gas stations, night clubs and several media outlets, according to independent media reports.

A US diplomatic cable published by the WikiLeaks website described her as "the most hated person in the country" and a �robber baron� who allegedly sided with two godfathers in Uzbekistan's organized crime gangs to sell government jobs for millions of dollars. Independent Uzbek publications have for years run stories about businessmen whose companies and holdings were allegedly expropriated by Karimova's henchmen.

Karimova has also designed jewelry, recorded two pop albums and published a book of poetry that was panned by critics.

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