A final and particularly frightening problem is that many Ukrainian elites do not see themselves as custodians of the national patrimony. Here, Ukrainian nationalists may for once have a point.
Patriotism does act as restraint on some forms of plunder.
It is difficult to imagine Polish or Hungarian elites stripping state assets as ruthlessly as Ukraine's 'roothless cosmopolitans' have done. The sheer venality of Ukrainian elites defies belief. Corruption stories would regularly refer to tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars, not just the odd 50 in the brown envelope. In one notorious case in 1998 Vasyl Volha, general director of the International Union of Ukrainian Enterpreneurs, was visited by state 'enforcers'. When he questioned their patriotism, they replied, 'Nobody's going to save Ukraine, not now.