Since June, Mezhyhirya, the luxurious estate near Kyiv that used to belong to Ukraine’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, has become a place of fortune-telling. The former president’s bathhouse has been rented to a psychic.
Rozalia Romanova, 47, native of Kyiv, who is mostly known as Lilia Romanova, has been renting the wooden bathhouse as her working space for almost three months at a high price of Hr 15,000 per week.
“I had a prophetic dream that made me realize I have to come to Mezhyhirya to help people,” Romanova says. “This is a place of strength. The results of the rituals conducted here are better than somewhere else.”
Romanova specializes in tarot card reading and mystic rituals that mean to deprive clients of the troubles in their love life.
Romanova says it wasn’t hard to bring her “prophetic dream” to life. Mezhyhirya commandant Denys Tarakhkotelyk took a liking to her and offered her a place for rent. She chose the bathhouse because it has an artificial river that to Romanova symbolizes “the place where life begins.”
Although the medium did not sign any rental agreements she pays the rent weekly. At first she agreed to pay Hr 10,000 per week, but very soon the commandant told her that the community decided she had to pay more, and the price went up to Hr 15,000. The commandant confirmed the price to the Kyiv Post.
Thus, Romanova pays Hr 60,000 a month, which means she already paid nearly Hr 120,000 to the Mezhyhirya fund through the commandant.
Tarakhkotelyk says all the money is spent to keep the Mezhyhirya territory in proper condition. Documents found after Yanukovych fled the estate say that he spent millions on his palace. After the estate was confiscated as state property, its new managers started looking for money to support it. Romanova’s rent, as well as the money that Mezhyhirya gets from selling Hr 20 entrance tickets, supposedly help maintain the mansion of 135 hectares.
“Paying gas and electricity bills and salaries for 220 workers who take care of the Mezhyhirya buildings and parks is costly. We need about Hr 2.5 million a month to maintain it,” Tarakhkotelyk says.
Romanova describes her income in Mezhyhirya as “modest” and complains that it sometimes does not cover her weekly rent. Yet she does not intend to leave Mezhyhirya despite financial losses. “Now is the time when everybody has to make sacrifices,” she says.
Yet basic calculation of Romanova’s spiritual business looks a lot more promising. Her one-hour session costs 120 euros on average. Romanova receives clients in Mezhyhirya from 10 a.m. till 8 p.m. daily. Her clientele is so large that one needs a prior registration to get an appointment, she says.
“Starting from the end of June I’ve not had even a single day off,” Romanova says, adding that people come mainly because of problems in their love and family life.
Many of her clients are people who fled Ukraine’s military conflict in the southeast.
As for those who do not want to solve problems with the help of mystic practices, Romanova recommends to simply make a wish while in Mezhyhirya.
“The energetics of the place will contribute for the wish to come true,” she says.
