France is blocking the acquisition of French utilities by the Italian electricity company Enel. Together with other European governments, France is also agitating against the takeover of the Luxembourg based steel company Arcelor by a Netherlands company largely controlled by an Indian steel magnate.

I don't exclude investigations of the clans behind Medvedchuk or Yanukovich, but the rest of business wants clear rules, he says. By leaving Pinchuk off this list, Yushchenko may be hinting that he wants a truce with Ukraine's most powerful magnate should he become president.

In June, a consortium led by Pinchuk and Rinat Akhmetov, a Donetsk magnate, bought a stateâowned steelworks in an auction allegedly rigged to specifically exclude foreign bidders offering two or three times as much. The move was probably more than just another property grab it also suggests an effort to forge an interâclan alliance for the post Kuchma period.

For example, such measures could be extended to cover all of those who abuse the fundamental right of legal due process, such as the right to a fair trial. Doing so would highlight the famous case of former oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose political ambitions alone landed him in prison, and who has been declared, after a second trial, a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.