Sins of the fathers-in-law

摘要

There were no bow-tied auctioneer, and no pouting beauties bidding for phoney companies. It lasted longer than big Russian privatisation auctions tend to. But the televised sale in Kiev on October 24th had its own quirks. There was real competition, and a final price more than double the starting one. And the winner was foreign: Mittal Steel, the world's biggest steelmaker, which paid a hefty 24.2 billion hryvnas ($4.8 billion) for 93% of Kryvorizhstal, Ukraine's biggest steel mill. Before and during the "orange revolution" that brought him to power, President Victor Yushchenko made Kryvorizhstal a totem of the corruption that prevailed under Leonid Kuchma, his predecessor. The mill had been flogged for just under $8oom, shortly before last year's presidential election, to a consortium that included Victor Pinchuk, Mr Kuchma's son-in-law. The courts returned the stake to the state in June. Mr Yushchenko hailed the resale as proof that his country was capable of staging honest privatisations.