Ukrainian Foreign Ministry not entitled to impose entry ban on foreigners - minister
KYIV. Dec 24 (Interfax) - Decisions on barring entry to Ukraine for foreign citizens are made not by the Foreign Ministry but by other competent agencies, such as the Security Service, the Interior Ministry, the State Border Service, and the Migration Service, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara said.
"The Foreign Ministry has no right to make such decisions," Kozhara said at a press conference on Tuesday when asked by journalists to comment on reports that a number of prominent foreigners, including former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, have been barred from entering Ukraine.
Kozhara said Ukrainian law clearly stipulates what agencies can make such decisions proceeding from interests of Ukraine's national security, law and order, and the Foreign Ministry is not among them.
"No one in this country is allowed to break the law, and such decisions can be made by relevant agencies for purposes of national security and public order," he said.
Kozhara declined to comment on such decisions by other agencies and said he was unaware of the list of foreign citizens unwelcome in Ukraine proposed earlier by Party of Regions parliamentarian Oleh Tsaryov.
It was reported earlier that Tsaryov had told Kommersant Ukraine that the Foreign Ministry and the Security Service had granted his inquiry on barring entry to Ukraine to 36 foreigners, among them Saakashvili, 29 other Georgian citizens, 5 citizens of the U.S., and one citizen of Serbia, who are all suspected of "consulting the opposition on destabilizing the situation in the country."
Tsaryov said he had filed his inquiry with Security Service chief Oleksandr Yakymenko and Foreign Minister Kozhara on December 8.
Georgian Ambassador to Ukraine Giorgi Zakarashvili had told Kommersant Ukraine that three people figuring in Tsaryov's inquiry had already been barred from entering the country.
The Security Service told Interfax it would not comment on the matter.