Sarajevo, Bosnia, December 24, 2020
Photo: risu.ua
An icon gifted to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his visit to Bosnia earlier this month was not stolen from Ukraine, the office of Bosnia’s Serb leader Milorad Dodik said on Tuesday.
Dodik gifted an icon of St. Nicholas, believed to be a 300-year-old icon from eastern Ukraine, which immediately set off alarm bells for the Ukrainian embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The embassy sent a note demanding an “urgent explanation regarding the possession of their cultural heritage, which according to allegations from the note, was given as a gift,” Bosnia’s Foreign Minister Bisera Turkovic said, reports Aljazeera.
Such a serious accusation harms Bosnia and Herzegovina’s reputation, Turkovic added.
A photo of the icon published in Serbian media shows the icon carries the seal of the Ukrainian People’s Committee of Culture from 1920 on the back.
It was alleged that the icon was stolen from Lugansk, where some Serbs have joined in the armed conflict on the side of the separatists.
“If it’s true that this is an icon that comes from Ukraine, which was brought from Ukraine to Banja Luka, during the conflict in Ukraine, if it was stolen … then someone needs to go to jail,” said Zeljko Kosmic, Bosnia’s Croat member of the presidency.
Ukraine’s embassy said failure to provide information about the icon would be viewed as indicating support for “the aggressive policies and military actions of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.”
Bosnian officials said they would investigate the matter, and Russia handed over the icon to the embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Moscow so its origin could be investigated by Interpol.
In its statement on Tuesday, Dodik’s office said the icon was not stolen and it is not a piece of “cultural heritage or national treasure.” It is a “church-blessed icon” that ordinary Orthodox faithful have in their homes, according to the statement.
The statement also condemned Bosnian politicians and media for spreading lies aimed at harming Serb-Russian relations. “Hideous lies cannot hurt the brotherly ties between the two Orthodox nations,” the statement said.
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