Yanukovych's Shack

When Yanukovych fled Ukraine on Friday he left behind his palatial estate.  Quickly the protestors took possession and opened it to the public to show "what corruption built."  After seeing media coverage of the house and grounds Paolo and I could not resist any longer and drove out to see it for ourselves.  The compound is about 15 km outside of Kyiv at the end of a road filled with American-style suburban houses.

In typical Ukrainian fashion there were many entrepreneurs already set up at the entrance.  Bicycles for rent (the property is HUGE)... 

...and at least 20 coffee trucks. 

Once we passed the guards (men in police uniform alongside protestors in army fatigues) who did perfunctory pat downs on the men entering, we entered a place like nothing we had ever seen in Ukraine.  Orderly....

impeccably manicured....

with careful attention to every detail.

Here is Paolo in front of the main house.  This looks really nice from a distance (think Swiss chalet on steroids) but once you get close all I could see was tackiness and a virtual mess of conflicting styles.  For instance, the bottom two floors (the gray you see in this photo) are made of stone and marble including corinthian columns. How does ANYONE think that corinthian columns go with anything??

Right next to the house is this display of Roman ruins.  I do hope they are fake.  With this crook, one cannot be sure.  Love the horse head.  Fitting for such a mafia overlord.

It is like Gio was given a huge box of building materials and told to construct his own mansion.   

Once we checked out the main house we decided to tour around the property.  It is remarkable how enormous this place is and how perfectly everything was maintained.  We happen to know the man in charge of the landscaping here as he is one of our dog friends in the park.  We had no idea how large a project he had here. I wonder if he ever got paid this month?

To get an idea of the scale, I was standing on the bridge you just saw looking up at the house....

And now I have turned 180 degrees and am looking down at the river.

Funny road signs considering no one was driving around here other than Yanukovych and his cronies.  

Part of the zoo- many exotic birds.  I do worry who is caring for them now.  

Once down on the river we had to see the infamous "Galleon."  Yes, he named his ship "Galleon".  Sort of like naming your new baby "Boy" or your brand new summer home "House".

The scene down on the waterfront: man-made ponds, bridges, party houses, outdoor ovens, etc...

The property on the right is still his- for as far as the eye can see. 

None of the properties were open but here at the ship I could see into one window.
 A tacky explosions of ornate, gilded stuff.  

Even a bottle of Yanukovych vodka (see his face on the middle bottle).

This house on the property was filled with protestor-types walking back and forth.  Perhaps where the journalists are scouring through papers?

I was very curious to go into this greenhouse apparently filled with flowers and banana trees, but it was closed up tight. 

Artificial turf tennis.

Ukrainian women NEVER miss an opportunity to pose, even at the home of an evil dictator who had stolen billions of their tax dollars to build this place. 

Finally time to leave.  An interesting visit but sickening to see how much this man had taken from the Ukrainian people.  

Outside the main gates were garages apparently filled with cars.  We were not allowed inside. 

The main gate. 

As a contrast, here is one of Yanukovych's closest neighbors.  A Lada and a burned out building.  

Once home we laughed at the cat house we had recently bought for Salt and Pepper- sort of the cat version of Yanukovych's palace of corruption!

At least Pepper seems to like his new home!

For now we are staying put, but there are days when I think we should follow the advice of this sign (thank you, Kirsten, for this one!).....

Feb 23 Update from Kyiv

This part of the post was written by Paolo...

Dear all,
As you know, we have gone through some momentous days here in Ukraine. Right when it seemed that the protest was doomed, as Yanukovich had been able to summon some selected army units to Kyiv (by replacing the Chief of Staff with one of his henchmen), and was ready to disperse Maidan using force (and murdering a few thousand people), right the day after he had ordered to shoot at the crowd and the Berkut police was about 50 meters from retaking the center of the square, things started to go south for him.

More and more deputies defected his party and joined the opposition, and the Parliament was finally ready to vote a return to the 2004 Constitution, which would curb his powers significantly (this is something the opposition had been asking for almost two months, but was not able to get through earlier). On Thursday, after news came in that approximately 70 people had been killed by snipers, there was a huge outpouring of popular support to the protesters. Everyone I know in Kyiv brought medicines, food and other things to Maidan, to support the protesters, in spite of the danger.  Some of the President's closest allies defected him (including the new mayor of Kyiv whom he had just hand-picked a month ago). After hours and hours of negotiations with the opposition, mediated with the French, German and Polish Foreign ministers, the President agreed to a new truce and  a power sharing agreement (new elections in December, return to 2004 Constitution, new amnesty for all).  Immediately after the deal was announced, the Berkut special police (about 12,000 individuals) and the special units of the army left Kyiv.

When the three leader of the opposition went to Maidan and explained the deal, they were rejected as traitors ("how could you shake the hand of the murderer?" one protester asked Klichko, the leader of the Udar Party. "How can you leave him in power for another 9 months?"). The protesters, who felt the balance of force was now tilting in their favor, gave the President an ultimatum, and "ordered" Parliament to impeach/dismiss him. Otherwise, they were ready to storm the Presidential Administration by force.  We saw in few hours the whole power structure Yanukovich had built over the last four years collapse. His mafia comrades/senior members of the Party of Regions started heading frantically to the airport, to go to the Eastern part of Ukraine or/and to Russia. The whole city was left in the hands of the protestors. Over the last two days the Parliament voted a series of measures which would have been unthinkable until a week ago (dismissal of President, new Defense and Interior Ministers, liberation of Timoshenko, etc.). When the President flew out of Kiev, the crowd was allowed into his villa, which is about 15 miles north of the city. They found a sort of "Bokassa" heaven, with all sorts of luxuries and extravaganza, just as it was in Saddam or Gheddafi's residences. Some now think it should be turned into a museum of corruption.

Now Kyiv is quiet, and the "fighting" has moved 500 miles East. Yesterday there were clashes in Luhansk, near the border with Russia, and the President is reported hiding somewhere in Donetzk, his native region. Yesterday a urgent "congress" was also called in Karkiv by the pro-president/pro Russian members of the Party of Regions and the leaders of some of the Eastern oblasts. However, the congress was finally disbanded without conclusions, or precise plan of action. It seems that the remnants of what the protestors call "the mafia" (Bandu in Ukrainian) is now all but fleeing the country.  The richest oligarch who in the past backed Yanukovich (Akhmetov) today has publicly asked the members of Parliament he controls (about 40) to go back to Kiev and work with the new government.

I am sharing with you two videos, which in my view are very powerful. One is from a person, Mr. Roman Tochyn, who was killed 4 days ago. He is a simple man, and explains in the best words I have heard why he -together with other thousands, decided to join the protests in Maidan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMbKswFJF8M  

The second is a powerful video in Ukrainian (but you can get the main message of pride even without speaking Ukrainian):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHe8bEBVI0

Over the last few days, the violence here has been extreme. It is receding now and still happening in the East, but few episodes happened yesterday as well. For example, yesterday they found one of the snipers, and they almost lynched him (see first picture below).
 
So many people have sacrificed their lives for this revolution. Honor to them! However, the difficult part starts now: on the basis of their sacrifice, build a different government, honest, accountable and responsive to citizens. Build a better country. 

A sniper, responsible for the deaths of many unarmed protestors, captured by the protestors. 

And now a word from Clara...

And as for us?  We are staying put for now.  There really seems to be no danger here for us.  Many have left, expats and locals alike.  Since Gio's school is off this coming week anyway, many of our friends already had vacation plans.  We had decided a while ago to stay here and for now we will stick to that plan.  Maria, Gio and I have been suffering with a bad flu so the thought of traveling at this point is not appealing.  Plus we have added to our family!  We have two new cats, 6 month old brothers named Salt and Pepper, so we want to stay here and bond with them. Of course, if anything changes and we decide we would be better off in Italy, we can fly out any day that we choose.  Thank you to everyone who has expressed concern.  We have been grateful for your thoughts, but also feel lucky that we got to be here to witness such a momentous time in Ukraine's history.  Slava Ukrainii!

Here is Maria, who despite a high fever and constant tummy troubles, learned to sit up last week.  Here she is meeting Pepper for the first time....

Here is Gio transferring the germs he picked up at school over to his sister.  Sigh.

By Wednesday both Maria and I were not feeling well at all.  Somehow, Maria continued to have her amazing appetite!  This was a sandwich I was trying to eat....

Morning quilt time

Lavash and tangerines as Kyiv was burning.

Poor Gio.  This flu has knocked us all out.

Salt and Pepper arrived here on Friday afternoon.  By the evening they had already let Enzo know who is boss.  Here they hare taking first dibs at Enzo's dinner....

Gio & Paolo Go to Maidan

[This post was written by Paolo.]

Today Gio asked me to go and see the "protestors".  Since it was calm, we decided that it would be OK to go.

After having a snack outside one of the tents, he asked me to go "where the people were fighting"

We approached Hrushenskava from Europeinska Square and since everything was calm (plenty of babuskas around!), we decided to go to the front line.  

Gio, like a 21st century Gavroche, climbed the barricades, faced the Berkut (the Ukrainian special police) holding the Ukrainian flag.

Finally, right when we were on the barricade closest to the Berkut, he pulled out his Captain Underpants book, which he had been carrying around all morning, and asked me to read the last chapter!

Inspecting a torched car.

Meanwhile, back at home our fearless guard dog has decided our bed is really the best place for a nap.

Maria chose not to go along on the adventure

Our dear friend (and Gio's godmother!) Linda knitted this adorable sweater.

Cheese sticks are a new favorite snack.

And what did Gio do after his visit to Maidan?  He built his own barricade in his room!