The head of the supervisory board of NAU Chernyshov responded to reproaches regarding the Russian passport

The head of the supervisory board of NAU Chernyshov responded to reproaches regarding the Russian passport

The head of the supervisory board of the National Aviation University (NAU) and advisor to the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Petro Chernyshov, was suspected of having Russian citizenship.

In an exclusive blitz interview with Kommersant , Chernyshov refuted these reproaches and said that he 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 last visited Russia. That is, I haven’t been there for more than 10 years. Also in 2014, in July or June, the whole family: me, my wife and three children, surrendered our Russian passports and renounced Russian citizenship. My wife and children received Ukrainian citizenship in about 3 months, and the SBU checked me for a very long time, because at that time I was the president of the Kyivstar company, which is one of the strategic and infrastructure companies of our state. This verification took 9 months and in 2015, the then President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a Decree on my Ukrainian citizenship.

– Why then, in the registers that were published in this Telegram channel, do you allegedly still have a Russian passport?

– There is a paradox that it is very difficult for Russia to “release” a person from 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, and not to Ukraine. But this is not true.

– Do you have supporting documents for renouncing Russian citizenship?

– I renounced their citizenship, I sent my Russian passport to the Russian consulate. I personally went there and signed.

I can also connect you with my lawyer, who will tell you and explain the entire procedure in more detail.

– How can you comment on the published information according to which you are actively using your passport from the aggressor country after a full-scale invasion, in particular, appealing fines for violating traffic rules there?

– I have an apartment in Russia that belonged to my parents. Now my distant relatives live there, but I don’t know what’s going on in their lives. Perhaps they violated something and some fines were issued against them. I don’t have any car in Russia, I haven’t appealed 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, it’s already in Ukrainian and I’ll note that it’s very good. At the same time, at meetings with university management you communicate in Russian. You are an adviser to the Minister of Education, a civil servant, why is that so?

– I communicate very well in Ukrainian. Now at NAU we have graduation ceremonies, and during them I make speeches 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 the meeting with the deans and directors of NAU. I sometimes use Ukrainian, sometimes English, sometimes Russian. I do not know what to tell you. Anything can happen…