The leader of Serbia's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Cedomir Jovanovic, said on Thursday that the controversial icon the Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency gifted to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was looted from Ukraine and that the scandal that arose from it is “shameful.”
“Shame, a disgrace for our people, a disgrace for Bosnia, for the Church, a disgrace for Lavrov, for Russia, disgrace, disgrace, disgrace,” Jovanovic, who visited the southern city of Mostar, said when asked about the incident.
RELATED NEWS
Lavrov received the 300-year-old gilded icon during his visit to Bosnia from Milorad Dodik, the current Chairman of Bosnia’s Presidency and its member from the country’s semi-autonomous Republika Srpska (RS) entity.
However, the icon appears to be from Luhansk, Ukraine, as it has a seal proving its originality, as shown in the photo published by the SRNA news agency.
“Now we need to conduct detective investigations to find out where it was from. We know where it’s from,” Jovanovic said, adding that mercenaries went to fight and loot in Ukraine just as they did once in Bosnia and they would be ready to do in Serbia.
“After Lavrov’s visit, the region is worse off than it was before the visit,” he said.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Sarajevo has already sent a note to the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking for detailed information on the origin of what it suspects is a piece of Ukrainian cultural heritage.
