Advisor to Education Minister Chernyshov responds to accusations about Russian passport
12 July 2024 09:03
БЛІЦ
Petro Chernyshov, the chairman of the supervisory board of the National Aviation University (NAU) and advisor to the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, has been suspected of having Russian citizenship. In an exclusive blitz interview with Komersant ukrainskyi
Chernyshev denied these allegations and told what really connects him with the aggressor country.
One of the Telegram channels published information that you have Russian citizenship. Is this really true?
I was a citizen of Russia because I was born there, in the city of Yekaterinburg, and in 2014, around February, I visited Russia for the last time. That is, I had not been there for more than 10 years. In the same year, 2014, in July or June, we as a family, me, my wife and three children, handed over our Russian passports and renounced our Russian citizenship. My wife and children received Ukrainian citizenship in about 3 months, and I was checked by the SBU for a very long time, because at that time I was the President of Kyivstar, which is one of the strategic and infrastructure companies of our country. This check took 9 months, and in 2015, the then President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on my Ukrainian citizenship.
Why, then, do the registers published in this Telegram channel show you as if you still have a Russian passport?
There is a paradox that it is very difficult for Russia to “let go” of its citizenship. I will say one thing – Russia can consider me anyone: its citizen or an alien. This country has an interesting position on a number of issues, for example, they believe that Crimea belongs to them, not to Ukraine. But this is not true.
Do you have any supporting documents for renouncing your Russian citizenship?
I renounced their citizenship, I sent my Russian passport to the Russian consulate. I personally came there and signed it.
I can also put you in touch with my lawyer, who will tell you and explain the whole procedure in more detail.
How can you comment on the published information that you have been actively using your passport of the aggressor country after the full-scale invasion, in particular, appealing against traffic fines there?
I have an apartment in Russia that belonged to my parents. Now my very distant relatives live there, but I don’t know what’s going on in their lives. Perhaps they have violated something and received some fines. I don’t own a car in Russia, I didn’t challenge anything like that.
Let’s move on to the language issue. The first time I called you, you spoke to me in Russian. Now, during the blitz interview, you are speaking Ukrainian, and I must say that it is very good. At the same time, you speak Russian at meetings with the university administration. You are an advisor to the Minister of Education, a civil servant, why is that?
I speak Ukrainian very well. At the moment, we have graduation ceremonies at the National Academy of Sciences, and I give speeches during them, just like in American universities. So during them I speak Ukrainian and English.
I don’t know how to answer the question that I spoke Russian at a meeting with the deans and directors of the NAU. Sometimes I use Ukrainian, sometimes English, sometimes Russian. I don’t know what to tell you. Everything happens..
Author – Aliona Kaplina
