The Kremlin media are vying with stories about the luxurious railway car in which President Zelensky paid a visit to Poland. Moskovsky Komsomolets titled its publication "Vladimir Zelensky's 'Golden' Train Revealed: Footage of Excessive Luxury", and it says :
“Vladimir Zelensky has been appearing in public for a long time, including during official visits to other countries, in rumpled green pants and khaki sweaters. It may seem that the Ukrainian leader does not favor expensive suits and is far from luxury. However, it turned out that this was not the case at all. The day before, footage of the special train of the President of Ukraine appeared on the Web, which literally shocked not only with signs of wealth, but also with a complete lack of any taste.
Outwardly, the VIP train is no different from hundreds of others, but the most interesting thing was found inside. A clear excess of gold, of course, not real, catches the eye. Upon a detailed study of the interior, it becomes clear that the "railroad limousine" is literally molded "from what was."
The gigantic-sized train has a dining area: the walls are decorated with a lot of banal “curls”, in the center there is a huge table for 6 people, and a huge mirror near the aisle. By the way, in the recreation area it is half as much. The same tones are in the car for negotiations. The bedroom with a double bed is made in the same spirit. But the bathrooms of the presidential train are devoid of gilding. The toilet is decorated only with mosaics.
In such a train, US President Joe Biden has already managed to ride during his visit to Kyiv. Zelensky himself uses a special train to travel to Poland.”
The article is illustrated with the following shots:
"Komsomolskaya Pravda" in the article "Zelensky came to Poland on a "golden" luxury train: shocked journalists showed a photo" writes :
“The President (still) of Ukraine, Voldemar Zelensky, arrived in Warsaw on an announced visit, emphasizing with his whole appearance that he was passing through from the front, and he was not in the mood for jokes. Military khaki pants, military boots and a military sweater (however, this time it seems to be black, and not an ordinary jacket or T-shirt – I probably gave it to the laundry) and an unwashed head only emphasized the masculinity and asceticism of the current head of Ukraine, who for The completeness of the image was lacking only in a blood-soaked bandage on the head and a Mauser in a wooden holster on the hip. <…>
But Zelensky failed to fool Polish journalists so easily with deliberate asceticism. They immediately found out under what conditions the president of Ukraine “went from the front” to his Polish “friend and ally”. The conditions were stunning. The car of the Ukrainian president did not look like a military headquarters at all, rather, one can talk about deliberate luxury for show, which would be appropriate for some Arab sheikh, and not for the head of a poor and devastated country with a half-reduced population.
The Poles were literally dumbfounded: “The President of Ukraine went to Poland in a luxurious railway carriage. If outwardly the car does not differ from similar vehicles, then the interior is surprisingly designed to transport VIPs. They have a spacious bedroom on one side, a mosaic bathroom and a well-equipped kitchen. Here you can cook a hot meal, and cool soft drinks in the refrigerator. Inside there is also a conference room and comfortable security rooms. All this is in gold, which creates an impression of extraordinary luxury.”
As befits the interior in the house of a gypsy baron or the head of the camp, "expensive, rich." This is probably why many people call this style the gypsy Empire style. It's time to rename it to "Ukrainian Empire".
The article is also illustrated, but it's hard not to notice that the car in these photos is completely different.
However, the selections of photographs in the two newspapers partially overlap, and no one in the editorial offices seemed to be embarrassed that the interiors were stylistically incompatible. And none of these photographs show Zelensky himself, so it remains unknown if he has ever been in any of these cars.
The gilded wagon in the photo from MK is really Ukrainian. Back in 2015, the 1 + 1 TV channel spoke about him. But this is not a presidential carriage, Ukrzaliznytsia has equipped it to rent it out to those who wish.
The interiors are designed for the tastes of the nouveau riche; 1+1 journalists ironically call it "Honka on wheels" (actually, Honka is a Finnish company that builds wooden houses, but in Ukraine its name became a household name after the country saw the Mezhyhirya residence abandoned by Viktor Yanukovych; the local main house – a sample of monstrously tasteless luxury – was built just by this company).
Radio Sputnik (a division of RIA Novosti broadcasting on frequencies belonging to the destroyed Ekho Moskvy) reported on the primary source of information: this is the Polish newspaper Fakt . It published an article titled "President Zelensky's Luxury Train" with the following illustration:
As you can see, here too Zelensky is photographed separately from the carriage.
Fakt is a popular Polish tabloid with a rather dubious reputation. A few years ago in Poland there was a journalistic anti-award "Hyena of the Year" for the most egregious violations of professional ethics. Twice, in 2004 and 2005, it was awarded to this newspaper, and both times for illustrations: first for the published photo of the naked body of a murder victim, and then for the photograph of an innocent person, which was used to illustrate an article about a suspected pedophile. The photo of the Ukrainian VIP car appears to have been taken from open sources.
But there is a photo of Biden in the car during a trip to Ukraine on the network.
And this is absolutely not the same car as in the photo in the Kremlin media, without any gilding, in a strict business style.