Saturday, October 21, 2006


Strange bedfellows
(Shown) Steven Spielberg at a press conference in the Ukraine with "industrialist" and billionaire (#507 Forbes) Viktor Pinchuk who co-produced a documentary with Spielberg on the Holocaust in the Ukraine.

You might remember Victor Pinchuk, son-in-law of former President Leonid Kuchma. Victor was the happy winner in the privatization of Kryvorizhstal, one of the world's biggest steel plants and source of his fortune. He won the tender after beating out international rivals like LVM and US Steel who had offered twice as much. Kuchma has a lurid past, as reported by the BBC.
During his time in office, Mr Kuchma has lurched from one scandal to another, including being accused of complicity in the killing of an opposition journalist, over which he could face a jail sentence if he's charged and found guilty.
Then there was that nasty business of the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko.

The American drive-by media chose not to mention Viktor Pinchuk. Or Mr. Yushchenko. (shown below)

No comments: