Thursday, January 04, 2007

Viktors walking hand-in-hand

Today PoR VR deputy Mykhaylo Chechetov said in an interview that in 2007, "The two Viktors will walk together hand-in-hand," and PoR will not permit them to quarrel and "fall-out"with one another.

He is confident that it will be impossible to annul the polical reforms which weakened the President's powers after the Orange Revolution, and that the government can now work peacefully for five years. "Work or dismissal of the government does not depend on what side of the bed the President got up on," he said.

Maybe PoR know that they can 'pull the same stunt' that they did on 3rd August last year when Yushchenko changed his mind at the last moment and did not dismiss the VR. [Something Tymoshenko describes in her summing up of the events of 2006]

Chechetov was the chairman of the Ukrainian State Property Fund who in 2004 oversaw the rigged sale of 'Kryvorizhstal' to a consortium led by two of Ukraine's biggest oligarchs, Viktor Pinchuk [President Kuchma's son-in-law] and PoR's main financial sponsor, Rinat Akhmetov, for $800 million, despite foreign bidders offering up to $1.5 billion.

Kryvorizhstal was reprivatized and eventually sold to Mittal Steel for $4.8Bn in October 2005 in a transparent auction organized by the Tymoshenko government.

Last February it looked as if Chechetov would be 'nailed' for his participation in this business, but now he is a deputy in the VR and has immunity from prosecution, so can sleep easy. More on this here.

What a country..

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