Kyiv.
Moscow wasnt so much burning the candle at both ends, as chopping it into bits to provide atmospheric lighting for an endless succession of wodka-limon shots each evening.
So the Kyiv pictures have a slower paced quality about them. (Aided by days of very monotone grey weather, and fierce babushka church attendants who had perfected their lines of sight with Red Army precision to enforce the no photo / no sitting down rules).
But the pictures do not do Kyiv justice. It has very much of a Parisian feel about it. Perhaps this was to wind up their Soviet masters and display an assertive streak of independence after the war (when Kyiv was just about flattened).
This Ukraine / Russian tension continues today. From blame of the poor handling of the Chernobyl disaster, Russia's oil and gas wealth versus Ukraine's agrarian economy, to Ukraine's growing friendliness with the West and ownership of the Sevastopol Crimean naval base. I got talking to a student whose parents migrated here from Siberia. She was born in Kyiv two years before Independence and so grew up in the Ukraine - but specifically opted for a Russian passport - and will vote for a party campaigning for reunion with Russia. There are many like her... the politicians have a tightrope to walk over the next few years.
Alex
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