At the height of their power and authority, they command fear and respect. But a fallen dictator’s crimes often include not just those against humanity but also against good taste.
So it was this week, as the first street fighters tentatively made their way through the open gates of the official residence of Viktor Yanukovich, the fallen president of Ukraine.
Inside the Mezhyhirya estate, they found a private zoo filed with rare breeds of goat, a golf course and a garage full of vintage cars. Also in the grounds was a restaurant designed to look like a pirate ship, with the word “galleon” engraved on the prow.
In a country where the average wage is Dh48, such opulence was almost unimaginable.
Yet the exploitation of his country’s resources on extravagant whimsy is modest by comparison to the lifestyles of other tyrants exposed after their deposition.
As far back as the 18th century, the hungry peasants of France gazed in awe at the crystal chandeliers and silk wall hangings of Louis XVI’s palace at Versailles.
More than 100 years later, during the Russian Revolution, came the storming of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. The mob that looted the palace in October 1917 were fuelled by the some of the world’s rarest vintages they had pillaged from the cellars.
In 1977, Jean-Bedel Bokassa proclaimed himself emperor of the Central African Republic in a ceremony inspired by his hero, Napoleon Bonaparte, that included a crown encrusted with diamonds estimated to be worth $5 million.
A crew from the BBC reached his former palace in the bush this month and found a swimming pool choked with algae and a rusting water slide. The ruins were guarded by army recruits who had been abandoned by their commanders and left to defend themselves against rebel forces with nothing more than wooden replica rifles.
Almost exactly a decade later, it was the turn of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, who fled the Philippines after a popular uprising prompted by allegations that the presidential election had been rigged.
Inside the Malacañan Palace, demonstrators found 15 mink coats, more than 1,000 handbags and, famously, an estimated 1,060 pairs of shoes, all belonging to Mrs Marcos. About 700 shoes later formed the centrepiece of a Marcos museum. The rest had been eaten by termites.
Two years later, the people of Romania rose up against the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who despite having an official salary of just Dh11,000 managed to construct a string of palaces in one of the poorest countries in Europe.
At the time of his death Ceausescu was in the final stages of building his vast 1,000-room “Palace of Parliament”, whose construction involved the destruction of entire districts in the capital, Bucharest.
Ceausescu’s death, by a firing squad on Christmas Day 1989, seems to indicate that the greater the extravagance, the greater the likelihood of an untimely death at the hands of those you oppressed.
American forces occupying Iraq in 2003 discovered everything from boxes of Cuban cigars and Oakley sunglasses to suitcases of uncirculated dollar bills totalling US$650 million, in a string of palaces used by Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Qusay.
Crystal chandeliers and man-made lakes were standard fittings in the nearly 50 mansions that the US state department estimated Saddam had built since the end of the 1991 Gulf War and despite tough international sanctions. Others featured private cinemas and dolphin pools.
Uday and Qusay were killed in an assault by American forces in Mosul in July 2003. Saddam met the hangman’s noose in December 2006.
For outrageous bad taste, though, it will be hard to equal Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, whose overthrow in 2011 revealed a private world that featured fairground rides and a gold couch in the shape of a mermaid.
As looters helped themselves to everything from gold-plated pistols to racks of designer clothing, others picked through Qaddafi’s private photo albums and marvelled at the contrast with their own lives of poverty. Within weeks, Qaddafi was dead, after capture by members of a rebel militia.
Peter York, the British style guru, is the author of Dictators’ Homes: Lifestyles of the World’s Most Colourful Despots. Most residences, he says, follow three rules: make everything much too big; go for repro, for an imagined vulgarised, fake antique style; and “have as much gold as you possibly can”.
Writing in The Independent, York observes that “dictators, like flaky pop stars, install things they can never really use”, for example zoos, fairgrounds and replica galleons.
After looking at Yanukovich’s estate, he concludes it is “absolutely par for the course, which is chain hotels. The Kiev Sheraton circa 1975: put up a breezeblock and metal frame and slather it with as many cheap chandeliers and veneered panelling as you possibly can.”
jlangton@thenational.ae
MATCH INFO
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
Godzilla%20x%20Kong%3A%20The%20New%20Empire
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAdam%20Wingard%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBrian%20Tyree%20Henry%2C%20Rebecca%20Hall%2C%20Dan%20Stevens%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
THE BIO:
Sabri Razouk, 74
Athlete and fitness trainer
Married, father of six
Favourite exercise: Bench press
Must-eat weekly meal: Steak with beans, carrots, broccoli, crust and corn
Power drink: A glass of yoghurt
Role model: Any good man
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Results
Final: Iran beat Spain 6-3.
Play-off 3rd: UAE beat Russia 2-1 (in extra time).
Play-off 5th: Japan beat Egypt 7-2.
Play-off 7th: Italy beat Mexico 3-2.
Company%20Profile
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
If you go
Flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh with a stop in Yangon from Dh3,075, and Etihad flies from Abu Dhabi to Phnom Penh with its partner Bangkok Airlines from Dh2,763. These trips take about nine hours each and both include taxes. From there, a road transfer takes at least four hours; airlines including KC Airlines (www.kcairlines.com) offer quick connecting flights from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville from about $100 (Dh367) return including taxes. Air Asia, Malindo Air and Malaysian Airlines fly direct from Kuala Lumpur to Sihanoukville from $54 each way. Next year, direct flights are due to launch between Bangkok and Sihanoukville, which will cut the journey time by a third.
The stay
Rooms at Alila Villas Koh Russey (www.alilahotels.com/ kohrussey) cost from $385 per night including taxes.
War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3/5
ARSENAL IN 1977
Feb 05 Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland
Feb 12 Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal
Feb 15 Middlesbrough 3-0 Arsenal
Feb 19 Arsenal 2-3 West Ham
Feb 26 Middlesbrough 4-1 Arsenal (FA Cup)
Mar 01 Everton 2-1 Arsenal
Mar 05 Arsenal 1-4 ipswich
March 08 Arsenal 1-2 West Brom
Mar 12 QPR 2-1 Arsenal
Mar 23 Stoke 1-1 Arsenal
Apr 02 Arsenal 3-0 Leicester
match info
Southampton 0
Arsenal 2 (Nketiah 20', Willock 87')
Red card: Jack Stephens (Southampton)
Man of the match: Rob Holding (Arsenal)
Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
MORE ON THE US DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES
More Expo 2020 Dubai pavilions:
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
