How to be reminded that Ukraine was once part of the USSR?

- One can still whiff traces of obnoxious Soviet-made cigarettes
- There is little sense of shared space: entranceways and lobbies of most apartment buildings are terribly neglected!
- Red-tape is stifling! Tons of paperwork even for the smallest transactions! Signatures and official seals are mandatory most of the time: all restaurants need to have the signature of the owner ON EACH page!
- People still carry around shopping bags: shops charge customers for plastic bags (actually this unintentionally has forced recycling)
- a faceless, central authority decides for ALL Ukrainians when their heating will commence in fall and cease in spring
- the carcasses of cannibalized Soviet-built passengers planes on the aprons of most Ukrainian airports
- Cockpit crew are the last to enter the aircraft and the first to get off (domestic flights)
- Ladas and other remnants of the centralized, Soviet automobile industry are still on the streets
- the venerable hammer and sickle can still be seen on many buildings
- older hotels still have an attendant (mostly elderly and female) on each floor - though they are no longer reporting to the KGB the each and every move of guests!
- most gas pipelines are controlled by Moscow