Editor’s Note:

Bechtel Corporation’s experience with this part of the world got off to a bad start. In August, 1933, on a business trip to Moscow, Warren A. Bechtel, the company founder, died of an insulin overdose. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Bechtel returned to region working on the Chornobyl sarcophagus and on the Nunn-Lugar project to contain ‘loose nukes.’ That included decommissioning the Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv oblast base that once was home to 80 ICBMs aimed at the US. Now Bechtel may turn to infrastructure. Let’s see if the company that built the Chunnel can tackle Kyiv’s traffic gridlock. With Best Regards, Jim Brooke