Thursday was to have marked the end of the Russian voucher and with it graduation day for this country's extraordinary privatization program which, in the eyes of some, has brought to its knees an entire political and economic system.


As it turns out, the program will limp on under the control of regional authorities. But after 20 months in circulation, a judgement of some kind is due for the Russian voucher.


If its success is to be measured by the number of property and share owners it created, or by the amount of property it wrested from the grip of the state, then the voucher has been a success of millennial proportions.


Consider this: Russia now has more shareholders than the bastion of capitalism, the United States. Just 20 months ago, when the first vouchers were distributed free to the populace, there were virtually none.


Tens of thousands of large and small state enterprises have now passed into a form of private ownership, providing at least the opportunity for some of these to rebuild themselves into efficient and sustainable companies.


The recent announcement by the ZiL truck factory that its shareholders have sacked its director and approved a serious restructuring program is evidence of what this potentially fundamental shift in property and power can mean. ZiL was a congenital loss-maker. It now has at least a chance to improve and attract investment.


But that is only half the story. The voucher has also become a symbol to many people of the hopelessness of their predicament. The old Communist bosses were not to be trusted; they were feckless bureaucrats interested only in maintaining their perks and sinecures. So, it seems to many Russians, are the country's new leaders.


Rather than distributing the wealth of the state among the people who had toiled to create it, many believe privatization has given title to the same feckless bureaucrats and to a new and still more disturbing class of felons. The average Russian can feel little benefit.Seen in this context, what has the voucher achieved? It has not cured the economic ills of the former Soviet Union. On the contrary, production is in a free fall. It has not disinherited the old crooks, it has simply added new ones.


The truth is that privatization remains at a rudimentary stage and vouchers were never a panacea for Russia's troubles. But the voucher was an essential part of the process without which this country stood no chance of escaping from the circle of inefficiency that entrapped the former Soviet Union. Yes, this privatization is an ugly process, it is neither fair nor just. But it is necessary and it has only just begun.