Inside the Palace of Ukraine’s Former President: A VICE News Dispatch

This story was originally published on February 27, 2014.

As protesters in central Kiev took over the parliament building on Saturday, others headed to President Yanukovych’s highly controversial private estate of Mezyhrhrya, just outside the city. The estate, half the size of Monaco, cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build, much of it coming from embezzlement and corruption, and had long been in the protesters’ sights. The average monthly salary for an Ukrainian citizen is around 200 Euros, so their President’s opulent lifestyle was a constant slap in the face that could no longer be ignored.

VICE News went along with thousands of curious Ukrainians to take a look and walk around Yanukovych’s house, like a kleptocrat’s version of ‘Cribs.’

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