I believe the current political mess caused the adoption slow down. This is just my pet theory. I haven't seen this is print.

I wrote some blogs about Ukrainian poverty and wealth back in July 2006. And recently I started reading about Ukraine's wealthy elite again.

Money and politics are closely tied.

The wealthy, for the most part, are pulled into 3 directions; close to Russia, close to Europe/West, don't change a thing.

I really like Anders Aslund's description of this. They are oligarchic groups.

In a nutshell... An oligarchy occurs when a small group of "special" people runs the government. This could happen due to family relationships, wealth and/or military power.

May 12, 2004 the Subcommittee on Europe of the Committee on International Relations in the US House of Representatives held a hearing on Ukraine's Future and US Interests.

While this hearing happened before the Orange Revolution, I think there are still many interesting tidbits in the testimony.

To understand Ukraine's economy and politics, one must comprehend its oligarchic groups, which remain the political and economic base of the country. The three most important oligarchic groups are regional: the Donetsk group, the Dnepropetrovsk group and the Surkis-Medvedchuk group in Kiev. These groups are both economic and political.

At present, the strongest group by far is the Donetsk group. Its leader is Rinat Akhmetov, a businessman who owns System Capital Management, Ukraine's biggest corporation, focusing on metallurgy. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and the Deputy Prime Ministers for energy and finance also hail from the Donetsk group.

....

The second most important group is the Dnepropetrovsk group, whose business leader is Viktor Pinchuk, who owns the metallurgical company Interpipe. Its party, Labor Ukraine, has about 40 parliamentarians and is led by the Chairman of the National Bank, Serhiy Tyhypko

...

The Kiev businessman Hryhoriy Surkis and President Kuchma's chief of staff Viktor Medvedchuk form the third group, which is much more state-oriented.

...

President Leonid Kuchma rules by playing off these and other less important oligarchic groups against one another.

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The resources that are being mobilized for the presidential elections are truly enormous. A common assumption is that the total election funds will amount to $200–300 million, that is, more than President Bush's current election campaign, although Ukraine's GDP in current dollar comprises merely half a percent of the U.S. GDP.

This money will largely be put up by big businessmen in Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk.

The Ukrainian government's budget was $35.6 billion in 2006. The unemployment rate is around 6.7% and their GDP is $355.8 billion.

So briefly... Let's look at the big businessmen.

Forbes lists Ukrainian billionaires every year. Wprost, a Polish publication, lists the richest Eastern European men. And the Kyiv Post with Korespondent published a richest Ukrainian list. I decided to cross reference the lists.

Forbes could only find 7 Ukrainian billionaires. Wprost found 10 Ukrainian billionaires. Korespondent found 9 Ukrainian billionaires.

What I found truly interesting is that Ukrainian tycoons undervalued in Forbes ranking.

All 3 lists agreed that Rinat Akhmetov is the richest man in Ukraine. He is 40 years old and of Tatar ancestry. He is worth 4,000,000,000 (Forbes) or 11,800,000,000 (Korespondent) or 7,200,000,000 (wprost). He supports Prime Minister Yanukovych and is in the Donetsk oligarchic group.

Viktor Pinchuk is 46 years old and the son-in-law of the former President Kuchma. He is worth 2,800,000,000 (Forbes) or 3,700,000,000 (Korespondent) or 3,500,000,000 (wprost). He is friends with Steven Spielberg. Viktor Pinchuk is Jewish. All of Spielberg's grandparents were Jewish and from Odessa. Because of their relationship a Ukrainian Holocaust documentary movie was released in 2006. He is in the Dnepropetrovsk oligarchic group.