Khakamada, “who defended Ukraine like a tigress,” was not allowed into “Europe”
The organizers of the construction business forum “Dream Big” in Kyiv decided tofor threats from Majlis members and nationalists cancel the previously announced speech by Russian liberal Irina Khakamada, who was supposed to fly to Ukraine for the first time since 2014 to give a lecture.
Taryan Group, which planned to invite Khakamada, was created by Arthur Mkhitaryan, the son of the founder of the Poznyakizhitlobud developer, ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Party of Regions Nver Mkhitaryan.
“We are doing a great educational event and really want to inspire our guests. To do this, we invited speakers from different parts of the world to share their life experiences and their values. But it so happens that some of these values, in fact, do not correspond to ours. And we found out about this later than we would have liked.
We want to apologize to our guests for the fact that one of the planned speakers - business coach Irina Khakamada - will not speak at the DreamBIG Forum. Despite the fact that we conducted an initial check and agreed on the possibility of her entry with the relevant authorities, we are forced to refuse her appearance.
Because there are things that are important and unshakable for us, and our position on them cannot be ambiguous.”, says a statement from the organizers from the Taryan Group.
The head of the Mejlis, banned in the Russian Federation, Refat Chubarov, whose efforts sparked a scandal due to the fact that Khakamada in 2014 spoke loyally about the bloodless reunification of Crimea with Russia (but soon she offered pay indemnities to Ukraine for the peninsula), commented on the cancellation of the liberal’s visit.
“In this case, we did not fight against Khakamada, who is just one of many pathetic, unprincipled Russian politicians who have long been part of the Putin regime.
We opposed the fifth column in Ukraine, which almost openly took the path of collaboration with the Kremlin and betrayal of the interests of the Ukrainian state. No, we did not defeat the fifth column. As it turns out lately, it has many faces and is present even where it should not be. But we were able to give our own collaborators a public slap in the face. Thank you all, dear friends! We will continue to remain united and uncompromising... Crimea is Ukraine!” - Chubarov announced.
However, among Ukrainian nationalists there are also defenders of Khakamada. One of them is the famous Kiev journalist Alena Yakhno, ex-press secretary of the Kyiv prosecutor's office.
“For all my hatred of the Russian Federation, I really love smart Russian Europeans. There are few of them, but they exist. Khakamada is one of them. I love this strong woman. A real samurai, who firmly takes pro-Ukrainian positions on all broadcasts.
Therefore, it is very strange and wild for me to watch the fuss about her arrival in Kyiv for the forum. Irina is a friend of Ukraine. Attacking her is stupidity and obscurantism. And here’s a video from Solovyov’s program, where she defends Ukraine like a tigress,” Yakhno spoke in defense of Khakamada.
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