The impression of an American friend living in Kyiv:

“Ordinary people in this country are sweet. But every professional I encounter is a walking criminal enterprise.

Its like the french had their revolution so that they could act like effete totalitarians, and the Ukrainians got their independence so that they could act like fucking Boyars. 

You can take the peasant out of the manor but you cant take the peasant out of the peasant.

Its not that the governments is more corrupt than the american, its that the culture of the east remains a peasant culture. 

Its a purely predatory society. 

Argh.”

Lviv is nobler. But is there enough nobility? And will the youth aspire toward nobility or toward hooliganism.