Scheduled Privatization Won't Happen As Advertised

The Russian government said Friday it will not go forward with privatizing one of its most cherished defense resources -- MiG.  The Moscow-based aerospace giant is -- or was -- on a list of more than a thousand Russian state enterprises slated for privatization in 2004. Just Thursday, the government confirmed that by including MiG in an internet list of companies set to break free of government ownership. But a spokesman for the government says there's a catch.  Alexei Gorshkov says, while MiG will indeed become incorporated, 100 percent of its stock will be owned by the government.

"We are not talking about the sale of a package of shares of the future joint-stock company MiG," the Interfax News Agency quoted Gorshkov as saying. Gorshkov says MiG has to incorporate if it's to carry out plans to develop a holding company that includes the aviation company, as well as several other operations within the industry. Gorshkov tells Interfax that the holding company will most likely be created in 2005.

FMI: www.gov.ru