Ukraine's unfinished revolution has mansion to match

[LASPI, Ukraine] Chased from his sumptuous villa outside the Ukrainian capital and last sighted searching for a sanctuary on the Crimea Peninsula, Viktor F Yanukovych, the former president, suffered a final indignity on Tuesday: the masons and electricians he had hired to build a seaside retreat in a historic, old-growth forest decided that he would never pay his bills and started hauling away their equipment and materials.

The mansion, still under construction but even bigger than the palatial presidential residence outside Kiev that was overrun by protesters over the weekend, had been at least two years in the making, a gargantuan folly of excess just down the Crimean coast from the former summer palace of Russia's toppled imperial family.

Its main hall has a 40-foot-high ceiling and majestic view of the Black Sea, while living quarters downstairs feature an indoor swimming pool, a big hole for a hot tub and walls thick enough to withstand an armed attack.