Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zoran Tegeltija said that the statement of Foreign Minister Bisera Turkovic that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov or any Russian official was banned from entering BiH due to the war in Ukraine and decisions made by certain EU institutions was incorrect.
Tegeltija told Srna news agency that he checked with the competent agencies in charge of entry control in BiH whether there was a possible ban on entry and that he was told that no one had ever considered or made such a decision.
“The decision to ban any political representative can only be made by the Presidency of BiH, and after that, the agencies in charge of that will implement that decision,” Tegeltija explained.
Citing the views of some EU institutions that anyone can be banned from entering BiH on that basis, Tegeltija said that was not true.
“There is no ban, neither it was discussed by the Presidency of BiH, nor by the Council of Ministers, and without those two decisions, it cannot be made,” said Tegeltija.
He pointed out that there is no need to harass citizens with inaccurate information, because it is very clear which procedures prohibit entry into the country.
“There were similar requests to certain agencies in BiH to impose certain sanctions on certain companies, flight bans and the like, but the position was always that it will be applied when there is an official decision of the Presidency and then the Council of Ministers,” he said.
According to him, every country that has decided to impose sanctions on individuals, their governments have made decisions about it.
If BiH ever decides to do such a thing, Tegeltija says such decisions must be made through institutions.
“Whether an ambassador will accept a resolution or similar without the official position of the Presidency in any way does not oblige the agencies to impose sanctions on individuals, because they can only be adopted on the basis of a decision of the BiH Presidency,” Tegeltija concluded.
