You're reading: Crimean Tatar legislature insists on expelling Russian consul general from Ukraine

  Russia's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the remarks made by Russian Consul General to Simferopol Vladimir Andreyev regarding the Crimean Tatars do not reflect Moscow's official position, Crimean Tatar legislature deputy chairman Refat Chubarov said.

"We are satisfied to a certain extent by the Russian Foreign Ministry's assessments. If you translate them from the diplomatic language into the normal human language, it means that the consul made inappropriate remarks. Mr. Andreyev said several times in that footage that his position is the official position of Russia. But today the Foreign Ministry of Russia refused to have anything to do with this stance," Chubarov told the Channel 5 television station on Thursday evening.

 Russia’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the remarks made by Russian Consul General to Simferopol Vladimir Andreyev regarding the Crimean Tatars do not reflect Moscow’s official position, Crimean Tatar legislature deputy chairman Refat Chubarov said.

“We are satisfied to a certain extent by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s assessments. If you translate them from the diplomatic language into the normal human language, it means that the consul made inappropriate remarks. Mr. Andreyev said several times in that footage that his position is the official position of Russia. But today the Foreign Ministry of Russia refused to have anything to do with this stance,” Chubarov told the Channel 5 television station on Thursday evening.

Commenting on the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s role in this situation, Chubarov said that “the Foreign Ministry spoke in favor of protecting a part of the Ukrainian people – the Crimean Tatar people.”

“We are grateful to the Foreign Ministry for it. This is the approach of the Ukrainian state that respects the dignity of its people and its national dignity,” he said.

“We want him [Andreyev] to be expelled from the Ukrainian state immediately. And I know that we will make it happen,” he said.

In an interview with ATR television aired on Tuesday, Andreyev advised former trainees and colleagues of Soviet pilot Amet-khan Sultan, who was on two occasions awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, against attending the premiere show of the film “Khaitarma,” which uses facts from the life of Sultan’s family to illustrate the story of Crimean Tatar deportation.

Sultan’s mother was a Crimean Tatar, and his father a member of the Lak ethnic group of the North Caucasus.

Russia could not be represented at an event “distorting the truth about the Great Patriotic War,” Andreyev said.

“The theme of collaborationism and help to the invaders must be present at all events” where the Crimean Tatars’ deportation is the theme, he said.

The interviewer, high-profile Crimean journalist Lilya Budzhurova, suggested that his statements might be seen as offensive among Crimean Tatars.

“Did I say something new?” Andreyev responded. “I don’t need your advice. All that I’ve said is absolutely official. Record it and play it to any Crimean Tatar. My word and the word of Russia must be known, including my interview, so that the truth about the Great Patriotic War should be known.”

“It is a treachery issue pure and simple,” he added.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry accused Andreyev of effectively defending the Crimean Tatars’ deportation and expressed hope that the Russian Foreign Ministry would upbraid him.