The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office is to verify the "legality" of all privatisations conducted under the previous regime, new Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said on Tuesday quoted by the Interfax news agency. "This examination will be completed by February 14 and the prosecutor general's office will be able to provide the government with a complete account of the legality of the privatisations," she said.
One day after she had been confirmed in parliament as prime minister, Tymoshenko announced on Saturday the denationalisation of the country's main Krivorozhstal steelworks which were controversially sold off in June to two businessmen including the son-in-law of then president Leonid Kuchma.
Tymoshenko added that the steelworks would ultimately be auctioned off, and that the Krivorozhstal case did not herald a wholesale cancellation of earlier privatisations.
Ukraine's new President Viktor Yushchenko and his team had undertaken to review the privatisation of the steel giant, saying that it served as an example of the corruption of Kuchma's 10-year regime.
Last week a court forbade the consortium which had purchased the 93-percent stake in Krivorozhstal for 800 million dollars (613 million euros) from selling or disposing of its shares.
The consortium comprises two of the most powerful figures of the previous regime, Viktor Pinchuk, Kuchma's son-in-law, and Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man.
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