二十八年前，俺在匈牙利混的时候，接触到过不少前苏联加盟国，如立陶宛、白俄罗斯、阿塞拜疆、格鲁吉亚、爱沙尼亚、乌克兰等，的知识分子。其中大部分人跟来自朝鲜的一样，乖乖地每个月一次到大使馆参加“形势学习”，战战兢兢读书过日子，很少有胡言乱语的，但有一位大胡子却不信邪。

他跟我同事一年半，从来不踏入苏联驻匈使馆的大门，而且政治牢骚极多，对俄罗斯统治他的家园恨之入骨。唯一让他开心的，是当时卢布兑换美元的比率极高（记得是 1:3，即一个卢布可兑换三个美金），但兑换匈牙利的福林却出奇地低。如此，他就可以利用留学生的身份将剩余的福林换成卢布，再将卢布兑成美元。他说他就是故意“挖社会主义的墙角”。俺这个“生在新社会，长在红旗下”的老实人听听都感觉挺害怕的。呵呵。

这个叛逆的年轻人叫 Ivan(毅顽)，是一个乌克兰人。

不久，东欧爆发革命，推翻了铁桶一般的共产党统治，Ivan 也在苏联倒台后来到了美国，并以他高端的智商情商很快就在一个大学里混到了 Tenure 的位置。

五年前，Ivan 突然放弃这里的一切，带着妻儿，离职回国“搞革命”去了！

原来，自从苏联解体后，地处俄-欧隔离带的乌克兰一直处于动荡的局势，经济一落万丈，民不聊生。（据说现在乌克兰的 GDP 还不到中国的一半。）

Ivan 是极力主张他的祖国摆脱沙俄的影响，往西欧靠拢，并尽快加入欧盟的。

现在，经过几个星期的流血抗争，那位亲沙俄的（亦有可能是给亲欧的前前总统下毒的）总统被赶下了台，他那金碧辉煌的私人庄园也遭到了曝光。

问题是，现在的欧盟有这个政治决心和经济实力帮助 Ivan 实现他的愿望吗？

无论如何，我非常佩服 Ivan  的勇气和为了信念契而不舍的民族主义精神。

祝贺 Ivan 及其同党们目前的胜利！

衷心祝愿乌克兰人民能免遭国家分裂和战乱，能尽快过上和平、自由、富足和喜乐的生活！

对于这位被赶下台的腐败总统是如何搜刮民脂民膏的，媒体报道颇多，俺不赘述了。有兴趣的朋友可以参看这个CNN 视频 《金碧辉煌的私人庄园》。

FoxNews 也有一篇文章，转贴如下：

Monument to corruption: Ukraine's most-wanted man built $75M home on a $25G salary

Published February 24, 2014, FoxNews.com

The Ukraine’s most-wanted man, ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, remains on the run as his stunned countrymen tour his dream home, the impoverished nation’s answer to Versailles and what some are calling a “monument to corruption.”

Yanukovych, who OpenDemocracy.net reported earned less than $25,000 per year for most of his political career, is believed to have owned several homes around the economically-strapped nation, but none symbolized his greed and corruption more than the $75 million mansion he completed in Mezhyhirya in 2012. Built on the site of a Soviet-era dacha, the 340-acre estate, just north of Kiev on the bank of the Dnieper River, has features that would make the stickiest-fingered dictator blush, according to OpenDemocracy.net.

In a 2012 article on the excesses of Mezhyhirya, the nonprofit site reported that:

• Each of the mansion’s Lebanese cedar doors cost $64,000.
• Three sets of wooden paneling for staircases cost $200,000.
• Cladding for a neoclassical column and parapet for a flight of steps cost $430,000.
• In just 18 months, Yanukovych spent nearly $9.5 million on imported fittings for the home.

“In a country where 35 percent of the population lives under the poverty line, spending $100,000 on each individual chandelier seems excessive, to say the least,” wrote Sergii Leshchenko.

Yanukovych even used the people’s money to build a gleaming new highway connecting Mezhyhirya to Kiev shortly after he came to power in 2010.

The story of how Yanukovych acquired the 340-acre estate where he built his dream home illustrates his brazen abuse of power to enrich himself, say critics. The property, built on the site of a 14th century monastery, was originally a Soviet-era dacha, or country home, used by communist leaders as a getaway. After Ukraine gained its independence from Russia, it was used to accommodate foreign delegations. But when Yanukovych was appointed prime minister in 2002, he moved into the dacha. First, he rented the home; then, after a series of changes in Ukraine’s government that saw him leave and return to power, he simply took the home for himself, according to OpenDemocracy.net.

When he became president in 2010, he demolished all of the buildings at Mezhyhirya and began building his dream home, a five-story stone palace replete with imported marble floors, gold fixtures and exotic wood -- and surrounded by a 35-mile long, 15-foot high fence. Although he often bragged about his home to other world leaders, his ego did have a limit: When the Finnish construction company that built it for him sought to nominate it for inclusion in the Guinness Book of Records based on its sheer size, Yanukovych blocked the move.

The 63-year-old Yanukovych served as president of Ukraine from 2010 until last week, when he was ousted from power in what he called a coup. He is now the nation’s most-wanted man, accused of a litany of crimes -- including murder and corruption.

A political survivor who as a teen served prison time for robbery and assault, Yanukovych rose from a career as a trucking manager and mechanical engineer in the 1970s and 1980s to a minor position in the province of Donestk. In 1997, he became the governor of Donetsk, serving until 2002 when he became prime minister of Ukraine. He held that position for two years, before failing in his first bid to become president. But he returned as prime minister in 2006, serving another two years and setting the stage for his election to the presidency in February 2010.

With the manhunt now on for the ousted kleptocrat, the home reporters called a “monument to corruption” is open to the people, with opposition guards on hand to prevent looting. Thousands of Ukrainians poured onto the grounds over the weekend, marveling at the sheer opulence in which their former president lived.

Visitors gawked in awe and outrage at the ponds and exotic animals, and journalists combed through heaps of documents that appeared to show a leader who basked in extravagant wealth while his country sought bailouts from both the West and Russia.

Many of the financial and other documents were burned, while others were dumped in a lake before Yanukovych fled his closely guarded residence, flying to the eastern city of Kharkiv, where his support base is strongest. Divers were able to retrieve many of the documents, and activists laid them out to dry.

The drying papers included a bank receipt for $12 million in cash, a $2.3 million receipt for the decoration of a dining hall and a $115,000 price tag for a statue of a wild boar.

Photos of the documents were posted online by Mustafa Nayem, a top Ukrainian investigative journalist for the Ukrainska Pravda website and Hromadske.tv online news channel.

Yanukovych remains at large, but for now it seems clear he will never again dwell in the lavish home he built. Freedom-minded Ukrainians, still stunned at the greed of their ousted president, are calling for the home to be turned into a hospital, sanatorium or even a “museum of corruption."