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Ukraine’s foreign ministry receives request to ban entry to Ukraine for 36 foreigners

KIEV, December 24, 23:20 /ITAR-TASS/. The Ukrainian foreign ministry has received a request from a lawmaker with the ruling Party of Regions, Oleg Tsrev, to ban entry to the country to a group of foreign citizens, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara told a news conference on Tuesday.

“I haven’t yet seen this list, so I have no idea what the Tsarev list looks like,” he said. “But I know it for sure that no one in this country [in Ukraine] is allowed to violate law.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Tsarev said that the Ukrainian foreign ministry and the Security Service has satisfied his request to ban entry to Ukraine to 36 foreigners, including Georgia’s former President Mikhail Saakashvili and citizens from the United States and some European Union countries. Tsarev claimed these people were suspected of holding “consultations with the opposition aiming to destabilize the situation in the country.” “Frequent visits by foreign political technologists and protest activity specialists arouse well-grounded concern, since their activities are a threat to the national security,” the lawmaker wrote in his request.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian foreign minister said his ministry was unauthorized to take decisions about banning foreign citizens to enter the country. He noted that in line with the national law a person may be banned from entering Ukraine in case there were sound grounds. Such a ban may be issued by authorized agencies, such as Ukraine’s Security Service, the interior ministry, the State Border Service and the State Migration Control Service. “Since the foreign ministry is not listed among such agencies, it cannot take such decisions,” he stressed.

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