I FIRST VISITED KYIV IN FEBRUARY, 1992, on a contract from the British “Know-How Fund” to educate Ukraine’s new government in the wonders of enterprise and the free market. It was bitterly cold. Snow blizzarded by the shovel-load throughout my visit. On my way to my first meeting, at the Profsoyuz building (subsequently engulfed in flames during the Maidan insurrection), I inched my way along the pavement of the main street, the Khreshchatyk, in those days almost devoid of traffic.
At one point I saw an ominously bulky shape, barely discernible even at a couple of yards through the snow, looming towards me. This turned out to be a despondent fellow leading by a rope an extremely bedraggled bear.
The government team I met in the Profsoyuz HQ were an uninspiring bunch, except for one. They were nearly all pen-pushers or ex-Party leaders without a concept
