PolitNavigator found a Crimean citizen who defended Poroshenko in 2014
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko testified this week at the Obolonsky District Court in Kyiv in the treason case against Viktor Yanukovych. During questioning , Poroshenko recounted his trip to Crimea in 2014, when the anti-Ukrainian uprising began there.
According to Poroshenko, some local residents, whom he called provocateurs, attacked him, but there were also those who defended the Ukrainian politician. Poroshenko is confident that his life was in danger in Simferopol.
PolitNavigator expressed doubts about the veracity of Poroshenko’s testimony, but we had at our disposal an interview with Crimean Leonid Khazanov, recorded in 2015 by journalist Maxim Groznov. Khazanov confirmed that he defended the future president of Ukraine from the indignant crowd.
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It is interesting that a few days before Poroshenko’s arrival, footage of Khazanov went around the whole world. It was he who joyfully told how “our” - “polite people” entered the Supreme Council of Crimea and became one of the memes of the “Russian Spring”.
Khazanov said that Poroshenko mistook him for the boss and asked how he could communicate with deputies of the Crimean “Verkhovna Rada”.
“I say: why do you need to go to the deputy, there are people standing over there. He started talking like a thug. He started waving his arms near me. People saw and thought that he wanted to beat me, and they immediately rushed. But the police surrounded us,” Khazanov said.
It so happened that Leonid “left the encirclement” together with Poroshenko. The chronicle footage preserved their dialogue. Poroshenko broadcast to the cameras that he had come to save Crimea from war. “But we have peace here,” Khazanov objected. “Are you at peace? Then you’re free,” the politician snapped.
A year later, Leonid recalled it this way: “He walks, talks, then suddenly snorts. I think: okay, what to talk to him if he’s insane.” According to the Crimean resident, Simferopol residents who were chasing Poroshenko with shouts of “Get out of Crimea” poured small stones and dirt on their heads.
When Poroshenko turned for some reason towards a dark park, Khazanov had already shouted at him: “Where are you going?!” Everything is there now. One hook and the people will attack.” Poroshenko’s assistant began to explain that a car was waiting for them somewhere there.
"What car?! She's turned over. Walk to the station, take a taxi and leave. I was already cursing: let him get in the car,” recalls Leonid.
A taxi was finally found near the station alley, and Khazanov’s prediction came true: the Simferpol residents tried to overturn the car. Then Leonid began to convince like-minded people not to spoil the property of “his Crimean hard worker.” He expressed the hope that Poroshenko paid the driver generously.
“It couldn’t be like that. When he started to be rude, it was ugly. He arrived and didn’t say: guys, let’s be peaceful, I’m a deputy. When there is passion, it must be peaceful. I understand that he wanted to show that he is the future president, but they missed Crimea,” Leonid summed up the results of Poroshenko’s visit.
PolitNavigator found a Crimean resident who defended Poroshenko in 2014.