"Barack here, I just saw this expense list and it is not acceptable at all, what will the voters think, bury that 12 million in cash, get rid of the statue, and the bribe, well that wasn't too bad .... find out who this was, I don't want any of this to get back to me, those flights were expensive, and that trip to Hawaii, well, just clean this up ..... what ..... who ...... from where, Kiiev, Yanuk ... who...... Oh,Allah be praised, not one of ours."
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Cash: $12 million. Decoration of a dining hall and tea room: $2.3 million. Statue of a wild boar: $115,000. "A bribe": $4,000.
These are some of the expenses detailed in financial documents found in President Viktor Yanukovych's abandoned residence, which was occupied by protesters after the leader fled the capital.
As thousands of Ukrainians continued to tour Yanukovych's opulent estate outside of Kiev on Sunday, evidence was uncovered of lavish spending in an economy that is teetering on the verge of default.
Yanukovych left Kiev on Friday night after opposition protesters took control of the capital and the national parliament in the wake of deadly clashes with police last week. More than 70 people were killed and hundreds were injured.
While visitors gawked in awe and outrage at Yanukovych's luxurious mansions, ponds and exotic animals, 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.
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. Other respected Ukrainian news outlets also reported on the documents.
