This week's auction of Kryvorizhstal steel mill was a resounding triumph for Ukraine's fledgling market economy and much-needed good news for Victor Yushchenko's government. The 4.8bn paid by Mittal Steel exceeded expectations and was achieved through a fair and open process.
It will reassure investors unsettled this year by divisive government debates; it will also reassure Mr Yushchenko's restive supporters that he has the will to redress the wrongs of Leonid Kuchma's corrupt government.
The sale of Kryvorizhstal last year was one of the worst of some questionable post-Soviet privatisations. Foreigners were excluded from the auction, and the mill was sold for only $800m (�448m) to a group of local businessmen, among them Mr Kuchma's own son-in-law.
It was therefore the most obvious candidate for reprivatisation. The more challenging question is what should be done next.
On a visit to London, and the Financial Times, last week, Mr Yushchenko was passionate in his insistence that the millions of people who came out on the streets in the Orange Revolution demanded and deserved a clean-up of Ukraine's corrupt shift of assets from the state to private hands.
Read the rest here.
As a counterpoint:
Ukraine security chief Anatoliy Kinakh supports conducting the effective privatization of strategic industrial objects in Ukraine, though believes that during the period of the parliamentary election 2006, the privatization of strategic enterprises, including the Odessa Port Plant, Ukrtelecom, must be suspended.
Read the rest here.
Ukrainians have one thing definitely sorted out as far as being a democracy: they can yell and squawk their very opposing views through the free press.
Good.
For.
Them!
This didn't come without a cost though. There are several dead journalists to get here. May Ukrainians continue to defend their new rights.
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