Issue #42 Oct. 22, 2021
Preview IssueShady Sales
The 35-hectare state property known as Bilshovyk is a developer's dream -- a large open area almost smack-dab in the middle of Kyiv. But after initially flocking to the Oct. 27 auction of the property, investors are fleeing because of a complicated set of legal entanglements that appear to favor one potential bidder in particular, tycoon Vasyl Khmelnytsky. (Full disclosure: Kyiv Post owner Adnan Kivan was one of those developers interested in buying the property, but no longer.) Now, however, the property is expected to be sold for closer to the minimum bid of $50 million rather than double or triple that price, which some experts said could be expected in an open and competitive sale. The losers again: Ukrainian taxpayers who own the place. Sergii Leshchenko offers a companion op-ed on the state's long history of shady, under-the-table, insider-rigged privatizations that created today's current set of oligarchs and moguls. And one of them -- Hennady Trukhanov -- is still the mayor of Odesa even though he's charged with stealing from the city. More bad news: Three TV stations say President Volodymyr Zelensky's top aides are squeezing them to control the guest panels on political talk shows. And still more bad news: Kyiv Post columnist and ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili remains in prison, on politically trumped-up charges. The Business Focus, sponsored by Loreal, is on Recycling & Waste Management. The latest cases of Russia's imperial theft of Ukraine's cultural heritage.
