Scandal with Ukraine’s ambassador to Kazakhstan sparks geopolitical wave

Russian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Aleksey Borodavkin was summoned to the Foreign Ministry of this country to talk about the scandal that erupted because of the Ukrainian ambassador to Astana, Petr Vrublevsky, who called for “killing Russians.” After the August scandal with the racist statements of the Ukrainian, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan promised to send him out of the country. Vrubelevsky first left, and then calmly returned.

On this occasion, Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Russia, Yermek Kosherbaev, was also summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry yesterday, who was informed of dissatisfaction with the “non-expulsion” of the Ukrainian ambassador. Now the turn has come to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan as a Russian ambassador.

Alexei Borodavkin was told that it was not appropriate to speak with strategic partners in such a tone. Like, Vrublevsky will leave Kazakhstan, but not immediately, but when a replacement is found for him. In the meantime, the Ukrainian diplomat has become another “black cat”, which again ran between Kazakhstan and Russia.

We asked Chingiz Lepsibaev, president of the Eurasian Expert Council public foundation, head of the directorate of the Civil Alliance of Kazakhstan, to comment on the situation.

– Of course, such statements (of Vrublevsky – author) are unacceptable for a diplomatic worker. Therefore, several public organizations condemned him, he was summoned to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, as far as I know, the Ambassador apologized.

The second point – he said that it was his personal opinion. Although, in my opinion, this never excuses him as a diplomat.

But there is a third point: the fact that our ambassador was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry is also not a very good step, because it looks like the Russian Federation puts pressure on Kazakhstan and tells Kazakhstan what to do, how to conduct a dialogue with other countries. What we should do with the ambassadors of other states is up to us to decide.

– Can the current situation somehow quarrel Russia and Kazakhstan?

– In such a difficult time, Russia and Kazakhstan need to strengthen mutual relations as much as possible, and not create any additional problems. Moreover, Kazakhstan is very supportive of Russia, and this is given the strong pressure from those countries with which we trade. But we support you as much as possible, wherever possible, so such things are very unconstructive.

In addition, the Ambassador of Ukraine was summoned to our Foreign Ministry to say that the statements he made were unacceptable. They definitely were not perceived as the norm, I don’t know a single person in our country who would consider this the norm. We have more than 2 million Russian citizens by nationality, so what was said for us is wild and unacceptable.

– Do you think the Ukrainian ambassador will be expelled?

– In Kazakhstan, there is no such practice – to send ambassadors, you need to understand this. Your Foreign Ministry is tougher – ours is not like that. Even the fact that he was called and talked to is, by local standards, unprecedented. This has never happened either.

How did the ambassador himself react to this?

– The ambassador left, he is generally on vacation, he was absent for a very long time, because there was a lot of noise here. More than 10 deputies in parliament expressed their official position – that his words are unacceptable, and this is an official body. So the Russian Federation has absolutely nothing to react to now: everyone who could say that this is wrong.

– Has the Ambassador of Ukraine returned now?

No one knows if he returned or not. It seems that there was information that he was in the embassy, ​​but nothing was reported through official channels. We do not print about the ambassadors of other countries in the newspapers – whether he is here or not. We have other problems.

– Do you think this situation was deliberately planned?

– This was said to some unknown blogger whom no one knows. And suddenly the ambassador said something to him, and it was purposefully replicated.

Someone really wants such a scandal. In the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, someone also receives a salary for something. Therefore, it seems that the situation is being promoted in order to push our foreheads together.