Ukrainian SBU Says No Decision Yet on Banning Burjanadze from Entry

Ukraine’s state security service (SBU) has denied reports about declaring Georgia’s former parliament speaker and leader of opposition Democratic Movement-United Georgia party, Nino Burjanadze, persona non grata. 

“As of August 3, 2015 no decision is made by the Security Service of Ukraine to ban leader of Democratic Movement, Nino Burjanadze, from entering Ukraine,” SBU spokesperson Olena Gitlyanska said in a Facebook post on August 3.

Ukrainian media outlet, Ukrainska Pravda, and some Georgian media sources reported earlier on August 3 that Burjanadze was declared persona non grata after Ukrainian Foreign Ministry asked SBU to do so because of Burjanadze’s position over Crimea.
 
Burjanadze said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda and then reiterated in an interview with the Tbilisi-based Imedi TV on April 15: “Crimea has been forgotten by the international community; this is a fact today that Crimea is part of Russia and Crimea will never become integral part of Ukraine.” She reiterated the same position in an interview with the Russian television on July 11, when she was visiting Moscow, where she met Russian officials.

After SBU’s denial of declaring Burjanadze persona non grata, the Ukrainska Pravda reported that SBU can still take such a decision as a relevant request has been submitted by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry last month. There is no deadline within which SBU has to take the decision, according to the Ukrainska Pravda.