Renown filmmaker Emir Kusturica on Thursday denied allegations made by Bosnia’s Security Minister, who said that a controversial Russian writer who fought on the Russian side in Ukraine met with him and the President of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated part in Andricgrad last year.

When Yevgeny Nikolayevich Prilepin, better known as Zakhar Prilepin, tried to enter Bosnia last Thursday to attend an event, he was turned away by the border police who told him he represented a security threat.

The Russian writer later said he was probably banned because of his engagement in the Ukraine and Chechnya.  

Kusturica slammed Bosnian authorities over the ban.  

Security Minister Dragan Mektic said at a press conference on Tuesday that Prilepin had previously met with the President of Republika Srpska (RS, Bosnia’s Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity) Milorad Dodik, and with Kusturica in Andricgrad, a town Kusturica built within the eastern town of Visegrad.  

“He ran an ultra-right-wing political party in Russia, which was banned by Russian authorities, and he met here with certain people, (discussing) how the opposition in the RS should be broken and destroyed,” Mektic said.  

The last such meeting took place in Andricgrad between Kusturica, Prilepin and Dodik last year, according to the Minister.  

“Dodik was never in Andricgrad with Prilepin, and I think they never met in their lives,” Kusturica said.  

He said Mektic’s statement is in line with how the world works today.  

“The elite forwards its world police assignments that have nothing to do with the truth, it is only important that they do what is in the elite’s interest, but not that of their own elite, of their own people, but the world elite and of course instead of truth lies go out,” he tried to explain.