One of the good things about the gradual but remorseless break-up of the old Soviet Empire is that we can finally correct a lot of illegal and improper 'privatization.' It gave the word a bad name!

Not a line you would expect from the Adam Smith Institute. But the privatization that we pioneered in Britain in the 1980s involved taking basket-case state monopolies, making them competitive, and allowing the general public to acquire some meaningful ownership in them.

The 'privatization' in East European and Central Asian countries such as Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, by contrast, involved giving the state monopolies to the friends and relations of their thuggish pro-Soviet rulers.

Sure, neither Ukraine's Leonid Kuchma nor Kyrgyzstan's Askar Akayev were as repugnantly unsavoury as some local dictators. But extolling socialism while your family chomp cigars bought out of straight theft rather tends to get people's backs up.

I talked to Ukraine's new liberal Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister at our recent investment seminar. They plan to take the worst cases of 'privatization' theft, re-nationalize them, and then privatize them properly involving the whole population. It's the right thing to do. Let's hope the new government of Kyrgyzstan come asking them for advice.