Russian national Andrei Yeremin, who claims that he was removed from a flight in the United States for the "occupation" of Crimea, said he deleted his post about the incident from a social network after receiving threats.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, it was reported that Russian Embassy in the United States had been looking into an incident involving a man named Andrei Yeremin claiming being taken off a plane at the request of another passenger for being a citizen of Russia and an "occupant of Crimea." Yeremin said that he intended to defend his rights in court.
At the same time, Delta stated that the Russian was removed from the flight for violating security rules.
"I began to receive calls and messages from some strange people who told me various unpleasant things. So I decided to remove the post, not that I'm afraid of anything, but I have two children, it's unpleasant for me," Yeremin said.
© SPUTNIK/ MAKS VETROV
He described the incident in the details.
"I was really one of the late passengers on this flight, but I did not break in. The doors were open, I calmly went into the plane and sat down in my place… A very drunk person was sitting one seat away from me. He did not like the fact that I had a Russian passport in my hands… he said 'you Russians are occupants of Crimea' to which I replied: 'shut up, ok?", Yeremin said.
He said that the passenger called a flight attendant, who asked Yeremin to leave for a "documents check."
"I calmly got out of the plane. A policeman came up to me and said: 'It's not comfortable for a person to fly with you, because 'you Russians have occupied Crimea'… He asked if I did not mind if my flight would be delayed by 45 minutes. I said: 'no, of course, it is not important for me," Yeremin said.
He explained that he agreed to postpone the flight because he did not like to argue with law enforcement agencies and airlines.
© SPUTNIK/ SERGEY MALGAVKO
Yeremin stressed that he did not violate any rules while boarding, because otherwise, given the strictness of the US aviation security standards, he would simply not be allowed to fly. He added that he intends to file a complaint with the airline demanding compensation and apologies.
Yeremin resides permanently in the United States but has Russian citizenship.
Crimea rejoined Russia in 2014 after almost 96 percent of its voters supported the move through a referendum held in March 2014. Kiev, as well as Brussels and Washington, did not recognize the referendum results. Russian authorities have repeatedly said that the Crimean residents decided to rejoin Russia in a democratic procedure and that the referendum was conducted in compliance with the international law.
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