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Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ambassador to Russia, Zeljko Samardzija, returns the icon presented to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and returned by the Russian Foreign Ministry to donors in Sarajevo. This was announced on Friday by the Tanjug and TASS agencies.
It is reported that Ambassador Samardzhiya personally transferred the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonder Worker in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time, the diplomat did not hand it over to the Republic’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As previously reported by SRNA, the president of the presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, handed over to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a gilded 18th-century icon painted in Lugansk during the Russian diplomat’s visit. The agency posted a photo of the St. Nicholas the Wonderworker icon and the red wax seal on the back of the icon, which shows the imprint “USSR. People’s Education Committee. Ukrnauka. Odessa Krai Commission” (Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine. People’s Education Committee. Urnauka – Odessa Regional Commission) .р.).
The Embassy of Ukraine in Bosnia and Herzegovina sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic with a request to return to Ukraine the Lugansk icon, which Dodik gave to Lavrov. The Bosnia and Herzegovina Prosecutor’s Office has started a case and started an investigation into the origin of the icon. On December 23, Russia turned over the icon to the Bosnian embassy in Moscow, despite the Dodik administration denying information of criminal origin, saying the icon was familiar.
Russia returns the precious icon to Ukraine
Previously, Kiev demanded an explanation of why it was given to Lavrov in Bosnia.
Advisor to Milorad Dodik – Radovan Kovacevic clarified that “the icon was the private property of a family from Banja Luka, which kept it for more than 15 years. “Relatives have expressed their wish that the icon be given to Lavrov, the adviser said.
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