Aspirations of Imperial Autocrats

"Because of the general rise in prices, the spending power of Ukrainians is just melting before their eyes."
Anatoly Kinakh, head, Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs

"The results of this year have been catastrophic for the history and prospects of Ukraine."
"All revolutions, as we see, lead to catastrophe."
Anna German, former Yanukovych loyalist

If it is of any comfort to Ukrainians -- and without doubt it wouldn't be -- Russia's economy is not as robust as it once was. Partially no doubt due to the crippling sanctions placed on Moscow by the European Union and the United States, having their effect. And in larger part likely because of Vladimir Putin's excessive spending on entertaining the world at the Socchi Olympics, the cost of vastly updating Russia's military apparatus, and dwindling returns on energy resources.

Ukraine's economy was in parlous straits long before Russia began noticing its own financial state was getting slightly wobbly. That didn't stop former president Viktor Yanukovych from spending lavishly on a magnificent palace to house his splendid personage, and furnishing it with the very best that money could buy. And nor did a little inconvenience like a downward spiralling economy encourage Vladimir Putin to change course from building for himself an extravagently expensive 'cottage' on the Black Sea coast.

Exterior of the Putin palace under construction (2011)

It's the kind of necessary financial outlay beloved of autocrats and dictators who believe that in respect of the great states they head they should be housed in a manner in which other state leaders find suitable to their status, but cannot indulge in because they are incapable of commandeering out of state funds a palace suitable to framing their glorious position. In the mistaken impression that even those governing democracies eye such splendiferous uber-mansions with a jealous eye.

Turkey: The ornate palace (pictured) reportedly cost more than $650 million, much to the dismay of both opposition figures and ecologists. (Screengrab)

It is left to imperial autocrats like Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to outdo even Vladimir Putin in the building of a extravagance reflective of the indulgence of his adoring public, who had no idea that their head of state would have need of hundreds of chambers in which to invest his presence. Mr. Yanukovych is gone from public office in Ukraine, while his prestigious mansion languishes in disuse.

Now, with the newly formed coalition government in Ukraine its mission is to seek ways to overhaul the flailing economy. For starters it must tackle endemic corruption while guiding their country toward integration with Europe. Europe's economy is still recovering from the global recession, some countries a little more stable than others, with Germany leading the way, and just happening to be Russia's most vocal critic.

Ukraine is still attempting to heal from the upheaval of the past year, even as the east remains embroiled in conflict, and the country mourns the loss of Sevastopol and the Crimean peninsula, a victim of Moscow's greed for power and a resurgence of Soviet hegemonic prestige. President Petro Poroshenko has a colossal task looming before him, to bring his country to social, political, fiscal health.

His critics cite the pace of measures meant to root out corruption and discard any remnants of the former Russian-centric regime. When people are suffering from a depressed economy with diminishing expectations it's normal enough that a universal attitude of impatience should arise. The country, split asunder by the belief among Russian speakers in the east that Kyiv was prepared to trample on their rights, incited by Moscow, is in a fragile state.

With over 4,300 people dead in the conflict, and combat ongoing, with the prospect that Russia will continue to plot and to stealthily send over the border their military gear and personnel to train and fight alongside the ethnic Russians focused violently on secession, the industrial heartland of the country has been impacted by the uncertainty of their future status. While Russia sends in convoys of men and brings out their dead under cover of night, Kyiv looks on helplessly.

NATO airflights over the Baltic states, meant to forewarn Moscow and reassure its nervous neighbours has the Russian media working overtime on their propaganda, stirring Russian sentiment to resentment over their treatment by the West and raising the popularity of their strongman to unprecedented levels. Even the Russian-detested, West-admiring Mikhail Gorbachev, in pain at the current impasse between his beloved country and the West, rails against the perfidy of NATO and the U.S. pushing Moscow to extremes.

Heading to intercept the Russian flotilla ... Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ship HMAS Stuart, with its 127mm gun capable of firing 20 rounds per minute. Picture: New Corp Australia Source: News Corp Australia

Perhaps he hasn't been reading the news the last few years to become fully invested in the knowledge of how Mr. Putin has been able to lead President Obama around by the nose. In matters as diverse as chemical weapons in Syria, to championing Iran and contracting to build a series of new nuclear plants for the Islamic Republic of Iran, to glibly denying sending troops into Ukraine, while taking pains to intrude on the sea- and airspace and geographies of countries from the Atlantic to the Pacific.