KIEV, March 29 ??“ President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday criticized the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych for its failure to sell major locomotive maker at open and competitive tender.

Luhanskteplovoz, the only producer of electric locomotives in the former Soviet Union, was sold for 292 million hryvnias, compared with about 2 billion hryvnias that the government could raise.

The sell-off suggests that government has been returning to questionable practices of selling state assets to well connected domestic or Russian companies.