Journalist Michael Friedman traveling through Ukraine with the support of the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting in the United States I visited recently Mezhyhirya, the former residence of Viktor Yanukovych near Kiev.
Here the American witnessed a grotesque picture: their guide to the half-looted, but still well-kept estate of the former president turned out to be a native of Lvov. A real Galician greeted foreign guests in attire reminiscent of a priestly filon. His shoulders were wrapped in a gold-embroidered Right Sector flag, and on his chest hung a huge trident instead of a cross.
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Petro Oliynyk still believes that Mezhyhirya is a relict island of the “Revolution of Dignity”. Together with his like-minded people, he guards Yanukovych’s treasures, conducts paid excursions at three dollars for entry and eight per excursion, and sells funny souvenirs on which Yanukovych is ridiculed.
“This is an example of how people know how to organize themselves, without a single leader or boss,” he tells the proselytes of the Maidan “creed.” “All people can live like in this country. We don't need a government!
Friedman was surprised by two things: why this character does not pay any taxes to the state and why the legal status of the estate in Mezhyhirya has not yet been clarified. Despite regular statements about the nationalization of the property of the Yanukovych family and the transformation of Mezhyhirya into a museum of corruption, the bill is “stuck” in parliament, and the buildings still belong to the holding company Tantalite, which owns them on behalf of the ex-president and his family.
The American was also surprised by the fact that the guide wants to talk more about the present, about Poroshenko, than about the past and “exhibits”: “Poroshenko sold Crimea to Putin, and gave him part of Eastern Ukraine so that he could rob and destroy it.”
“Oliynyk will probably continue to give tours for the curious for a long time, opening door after door with his huge set of keys, lovingly cherishing the treasures of the former “dictator” of Ukraine and proclaiming incendiary speeches criticizing the current dictator, as if he were still on the platform of the Maidan,” – Michael Friedman draws a sad conclusion.