[Witness spoke in Russian, interpreted as follows:]
I have to say that Russian propaganda keeps saying that they had to send their troops to Crimea because there was an illegal seizure of power in Ukraine and that the people who came to power were a threat to the Russians who lived there. However, on February 15, when Yanukovych was still the president of Ukraine, I received a proposal from Putin. There was a Mr. Vakhitov. He represents an oil company, and we know that he works for the Russian security forces. He said that Putin wanted to see me. He told me to go to Sochi and told me where I could meet him. When I asked him what we were going to discuss with his president, he said it was about the future of Crimea. This was on February 15. It was before all the events happened in Kiev.
At that time, Yanukovych was still in power, so the Russians had long-standing plans. I said that it was not my level and that I still could not understand; I was perplexed as to why his president would be interested in a region that didn't belong to his state. He told me that his task was to send me the invitation and that mine was to accept it. I said, no, I did not accept it, but when everything happened, I said that we would send a delegation to Kazan to talk to them, particularly on business matters.
When Crimea was occupied, we received a phone call from Mr. Shaimiev, the president of the Tatar republic. He invited me to come to see him. I agreed. I decided that I would go to see Mr. Shaimiev. I knew he was a counsellor or adviser for Putin, and I hoped to at least know what kind of plans they had about Crimea.
A day later he called me again. He told me that Putin had heard about our meeting and he also wanted to speak to me. I said that I had nothing to tell Putin; I was going to Kazan only to see him. Then he told me that the meeting place was changed to Moscow, and if I wanted to see him, he would be in Moscow, so I went to Moscow.
During my conversation with Mr. Shaimiev, when he asked me how they could help us in this situation, I told him that Russia was committing a huge mistake. They would have to pay for many, many years and they had to remove their troops from our territory. Then he told me that I'd better say that to Mr. Putin myself. He was waiting for me on the phone line. I went upstairs and talked to him for a few minutes.
I have to say that in Russia, particularly Putin's regime, they understand what it means to have the voice of indigenous people. It's important for them to have the loyalty of the indigenous people and their support of the occupation. He talked about how wonderfully our people would live. They would resolve all the problems we had, including economic problems, once we became part of the Russian Federation. He said that Ukraine had Crimea for 23 years and they could not resolve these problems; it would take them just a few months to resolve them.
My reply was that if he wanted to do anything good for us, he should remove his troops. Then I would understand that he wanted to help us to resolve our problems. We were victims of genocide when we were part of the Russian Federation, and obviously, Russia was responsible for it. I asked how the issues would be resolved and what shape that would take. I told him he had to discuss this not with me but with the leadership of my country. For these negotiations to come to a good result, I told him, he had to remove his troops. That was number one.
Obviously, he didn't like this talk. At that point and from then on, I was banned from entering Ukraine.