About a hundred members of the Russian motorcycle club Night Wolves laid wreaths at the monument to 12 babies and Tsar Nicholas in Banja Luka at the beginning of their annual “Vidovdan Ride”, and demanded the lifting of entry bans for their members, as well as easier crossing of the state border afterthe European Union (EU) sanctions due to the group’s role in the war in Ukraine.
The president of the club’s branch in Republika Srpska (RS), Goran Tadic, announced that he would ask the president of RS, Milorad Dodik, to stop what he called the “persecution” of club members.
Namely, the Night Wolves came to Banja Luka from Brcko, where members from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serbia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro gathered. This year, there are no members of the club from Russia in the “Vidovdan Ride“, and Tadic said that this is due to the war in Ukraine and the difficult travel of the members.
“It is known that we are banned in the EU because of these events in Ukraine, we suffer constantly, we have problems when we cross border crossings. In the last few months, it has started here in BiH as well. The EU and, unfortunately, the BiH services are persecuting us,” said Tadic.
He added that he will ask the new Minister of Security of BiH, Nenad Nesic, as well as the President of RS, Milorad Dodik, “to stop the persecution of the members”.
Tadic confirmed that the president of the Night Wolves, Aleksandar Zaldostanov, known as the Surgeon, is still banned from entering BiH.
The Night Wolves are considered one of the important ways Russia is expanding its influence. Last year, they participated in a meeting in Banja Luka, which was organized by the association “Serbian-Russian Bridge” as a form of support for Russia in the war with Ukraine.
The leader of the organization in Russia, Zaldostanov, is publicly presented as one of the close friends of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, and since 2014 he has been on the United States (U.S.) blacklist due to the events in Ukraine. The group was added to the EU sanctions list in July 2022, a few months after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
