A Russian anti-war activist has been ordered to leave Serbia, the Russian Democratic Society said on Wednesday.

A press release said that the promoter of concerts by Russian musicians in Belgrade Yevgeniy Irzhanski and his wife Elizabet had their temporary residence permits revoked on August 28 and were ordered to leave the country within 7 days.

“Yevgeniy was ordered to leave Serbia within 7 days and he was banned from re-entering the country for a year. His wife Elizabet’s residence permit was also revoked,” Society founder Peter Nikitin said in the press release. He added that the reason given was that “the body in charge of the security of the Republic of Serbia stated that there are security concerns”, a formulation used often in similar cases.

“We don’t know the real reason but I assume that it is the desire of part of the Serbian authorities, specifically the BIA (Serbia’s top security agency) leadership, to stop concerts of contemporary Russian music in Belgrade because most of the musicians are openly opposed to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s dictatorship in Russia and the aggression on Ukraine,” he added.

According to Nikitin, Irzhanski was interrogated by the BIA earlier and was asked about his views of the war and Putin, his links to the Russian Democratic Society and to Nikitin.

Nikitin was also banned from entering Serbia and spent 48 hours at Belgrade airport before being allowed into the country.