Elmedin Konakovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), states that the identification cards of Russian diplomats, who were expelled from European countries and are currently in BiH, were issued before his mandate, while Bisera Turkovic claims that the diplomatic lists show otherwise.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH announced on Facebook that Ilia Serov, the attache at the Russian Embassy, has been in this country since October 25th of last year.
Konakovic wrote that Anton Sokolov was in BiH on two occasions, stating that the second time was from January 12th, 2023 until yesterday.
“Both of them came, crossed the border, were not notified (announced that they would come), and ID cards were issued to them at a time when the SDA had the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bisera Turkovic, the Director of Intelligence – Security Agency of BiH (OSA BiH) Osman Mehmedagic, and the Deputy Director of the Border Police Fahrudin Halac.” wrote Konakovic.
According to the Rulebook on the conditions and manner of issuing identification cards for service in diplomatic missions, these missions are obliged to notify the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of new members and their family members upon arrival in the country, after which the Ministry issues them an identification card.
After research was published on Russian diplomats who were expelled by European countries after the invasion of Ukraine, and who were accredited to the Russian mission in BiH, Konakovic said that their arrival was a security breach.
At the time, he stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH did not let anyone into BiH or legitimize anyone.
Journalists asked the ministry for comment several times during the research, but the inquiries and calls were never answered.
Bisera Turkovic, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview that diplomatic lists are an indicator of who was an active diplomat in which period.
“They are issued quarterly. In September of last year (Serov and Sokolov) were not on the list. I left in January, and the first diplomat appeared in February, and the second appeared in September this year,” said Turkovic.
According to the research, Serov first appeared on the diplomatic list in February, and Sokolov in May of this year.
