The State Property Fund of Ukraine announced on March 24 to suspend the planned spring sale of at least nine key government-owned companies slated for privatization, citing their "monopolistic position on the market" based on an Anti-Monopoly Committee ruling.

The Ukrainian power authorities, i.e. the Parliament of Ukraine led by the Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, planned in its 2008 state budget to increase about $1.8 billion in revenue by privatizing strategic state-owned companies such as Ukrtelekom, Turboatom, six Oblenergos and the Odessa Portside Plant, whose tender was planned for the early May.

With the Fund led by Valentyna Semeniuk, a presidential ally, the announcement is viewed by political observers as the last obstacle presented by President Viktor Yushchenko in the path of Tymoshenko, who is looking for funds for her beneficial social spending programs.

The situation is "rather serious" and Tymoshenko probably will not have the possibility to increase the financial resources necessary for her social spending programs since "the Secretariat is ready to fight this issue until the very end," proclaimed Mykhailo Pohrebinskiy, the director of the Center of Political and Conflict Studies in Kyiv, which is financed by its private clients.

The Cabinet of Ministers fired Semeniuk on February 6, accusing her of corruption, and tried to change her with Tymoshenko ally Andriy Portnov, the Fund has been a key battleground in an ongoing struggle between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko. Yushchenko vetoed the Cabinet's decision to fire Semeniuk.

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko have "opposite views on privatization of the Ukrainian property policy," Pohrebinskiy said. "The Presidential Secretariat will do its best to block the privatization of those parties."

Meanwhile, "it will be absolutely impossible for her to win since she in truth has no allies in the current situation," he added.