Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin, who supported Russian separatists during the Ukraine war, was barred from entering Bosnia due to security risks, the SRNA news agency reported.

The writer was supposed to attend a literary event in Banja Luka’s University Library on Friday.

The President of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated semi-autonomous, Milorad Dodik, criticized the decision, saying he “expects the decision to be withdrawn.”

“How is it possible that a Russian writer is a threat to the security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and not the thousands of migrants or returnees from Syrian battlefields?” Dodik asked, referring to the migrant crisis that has erupted in Bosnia since the beginning of the year.

“We see the ban on the entry of the Russian writer into Bosnian territory as part of the involvement of security institutions in Bosnia in the anti-Russian hysteria that is being run by some western countries,” he said, accusing his political opponents in the RS who represent Bosnian Serbs in the state level government of joining such “anti-Russian” narrative. 

Prilepin received an award for his life achievements in 2017 in Andricgrad, in eastern Bosnia. Apart from being involved in the Donbass war, he also took part in the conflict in Chechnya in the 1990’s.  

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