How nice to be a state servant in a poor country

[Nik]

I'm not joking. Take a look for yourself:
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idU...
And it's representative not only for Ukraine.
I can sort of understand Poroshenko, who was already a billionaire b4 becoming the president, but some are state/municipal officials for long years with quite low official salaries...
And so much USD cash..
I remember one of the readers found it unbelievable that my protagonist always had 10K, as pocket money. But that was the biz custom - you wouldn't be considered a serious businessman, having less than 10K cash any given moment -:)
With amount of cash shown here, I guess the vogue now - is having over a mil cash at home-:)

[Graeme]

Cash is good.

[Nik]

Can you imagine all those vaults, safe deposit boxes, hiding places, suitcases full of USD and other currencies spread around the globe?
When a former president of Ukraine ran to Russia, the rumor has that it was with 3 trucks of cash full of crunchy green papers.

[Ian]

And seemingly honest truck drivers :-).

[Nik]

Ian wrote: "And seemingly honest truck drivers :-)."

Their honesty might've been rewarded by an extra dollar -:)
At the time I read it was claimed trucks carried across the border 32 billion USD : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uk...

[Ian]

I wonder what the temptation must have been like to go somewhere else and siphon off some of that and why such temptation was resisted? It is not that the 32 bil. was honestly earned :-)

[Nik]

I suspect the temptation antidote might've been a few barrels of AK-47. And who knows - maybe those drivers ended up on Forbes overnight -:)

[Ian]

Yes, but who holds the AKs? $32 billion can be shared out and still be extremely rich. I suppose you might think twice, though, if you knew the GRU would hunt you down and eventually get you, even if some of their recent hits have been less than successful.

[Nik]

Don't know how, but I guess the cargo consisting of 1 runaway president and a heavy load of papers was well guarded and secured to arrive safely into one neighboring country

[Ian]

If nothing else, it shows that said President knew how to pick loyal followers. A failure there could have been disastrous, as shown by Patrice Lumumba. When the US and UK refused to provide aid, he turned to the USSR, and thus became labelled a dirty commie in the CIA eyes, so they endorsed Mobutu (previously promoted from nothing by Lumumba) to get rid of said commie. Mobutu went on to become a tyrant and secrete alway squillions to his personal account. Your President simply got things in the wrong order or played too nice, still I suppose living peacefully in a friendly place with 32 bil USD, less significant expenses, can't be bad

[Scout]

I read the article, and I'm wondering what motivated these guys to disclose their finances. What would have happened if they had refused?

[Nik]

Scout wrote: "I read the article, and I'm wondering what motivated these guys to disclose their finances. What would have happened if they had refused?"

I'm not sure they disclosed all of it. Maybe some did, but wouldn't be surprised if most used it for "legalizing" (hey, now it's reported!) of part of their previously unreported wealth.

[Nik]

Ian wrote: "If nothing else, it shows that said President knew how to pick loyal followers. A failure there could have been disastrous, as shown by Patrice Lumumba. When the US and UK refused to provide aid, h..."

The question is who followed whom. Whether he ran on his own will or was prompted/left no choice/abducted remains unclear, as circumstances of his sudden appearance in Rostov, Russian Federation in general..
And I wouldn't be surprised, if there were a special 'tax' for sheltered runaway officials of this caliber -:)

[Ian]

Nik, I have little doubt that even if he was "prompted", with any knowledge of what was happening, he would have fled willingly had he not been so "prompted".

As for the special tax, I recall when I went into East Germany I was required to convert 10 D-marks into the East German mark. [A big change in appearance - the old D mark coin gave an impression of solidness - the east German coin was a small piece of aluminium with a few markings. As an aside, a D-mark was good for coin tossing if your opponent usually called heads :-)] As a western agent said, consider it an entry fee, that you could spend, if you could find something to spend it on. (I tried beer - East German beer was quite good. Communism hadn't spoiled that, although it did with Polish beer.) With 32 bil USD you could afford a substantial entrance fee.

[Nik]

Ian wrote: "Nik, I have little doubt that even if he was "prompted", with any knowledge of what was happening, he would have fled willingly had he not been so "prompted"..."

Could agree with this logic, were it in the apogee of confrontation, but he disappeared right after signing a 'truce' with the protesters, endorsed also by foreign powers helping in negotiation process

[Ian]

Did the ultra right wing sign the truce and give him amnesty? If he alone signed it, he would still suspect what they were going to do to him.

[Nik]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreeme...
The feeling was the agreement put the confrontation to the end and the balance of power was much in favor of the government, so his escape at thisstage was a big surprise

[Ian]

Nik, after reading the link you provided I get the feeling that each side believed the other side was cheating or not complying, so it may have been that they hadn't really agreed.