Belarusian law enforcement agencies said on Wednesday they had received information about more than 200 militants who arrived in Belarus, more than 30 of whom were detained and identified as fighters of the private military company Wagner, a dark company believed to be widely sponsored by San Petersburg. businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Prigozhin is a Russian oligarch often known as “Putin’s Chef” for his close ties to the Kremlin. Wagner’s fighters have previously been deployed to Ukraine, Syria, and Libya, among other places.
Belarusian state television released a video of the raid showing several of the men detained in a hotel room. A man is shown handcuffed on his stomach in bed. The video also showed alleged detainees’ personal possessions, including passports, US dollars, other currencies, and telephones.
Prigozhin’s Concord group of companies repeated their denial that Prigozhin owned Wagner, in a comment posted on their social media page VKontakte on Wednesday night. Prigozhin “has nothing to do with Wagner, does not finance them and does not follow his whereabouts,” he said.
Prigozhin was sanctioned by the US for funding the Internet Investigation Agency, which US intelligence agencies say has meddled in the 2016 US presidential election.
Lukashenko accused of playing politics
Belta released a list with the full names of what she said were the arrested men. Belarusian State Security Committee they arrested the suspects with the help of special police units. The Belarusian investigation committee has opened an investigation.
Lukashenko said he would demand an explanation from Russia, according to Belta. The Russian embassy in Belarus said in a tweet that it had received an official notification from the authorities about the arrests. Russia’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin, who previously fought separatists in eastern Ukraine; In addition, he wrote on his Facebook page that he had identified several men who served in his battalion among those arrested in Belarus. He suggested that the men were probably passing through Belarus to fight elsewhere, and that Lukashenko was using his arrests to leverage before the election.
“In fact, there are several ex-combatants from our battalion (which no longer exists, I might remind you). It is also well known that people who were or are fighting in the Donetsk and Lugansk republics also fight in different places, they also go to Syria and other hot countries at war, “wrote Prilepin.
“But if the Belarusian leadership begins to use this story for their own purposes, it will certainly seem ridiculous. This seems like a well-known story when well-trained people move to certain destinations where they have their own business, they don’t need Belarus.” “Prilepin added.” And I am sure that the Belarusian special services are aware that three dozen men in camouflage were going elsewhere. “
The US military recently accused Russia of sending Wagner mercenaries, along with weapons such as anti-aircraft systems, to operate on the front line of the conflict in Libya. The United States Africa Command has also released satellite photos that they say show Wagner vehicles and Russian military equipment in Libya supporting anti-government rebels in the country’s civil war.
“Russia uses the Wagner Group as a representative in Libya to establish a long-term presence in the Mediterranean Sea,” the African Command said in a statement.
“They continue to seek to try to establish themselves in Libya,” said Brig. Gen. Gregory Hadfield, the command’s deputy director of intelligence, in the statement.
Among the items of the detained men confiscated by the authorities at the hotel was a document written in Arabic, showing a prayer used by a Sunni Muslim religious order called al-Qadiriyya, popular with Muslims in Arab countries in North Africa. The document and the foreign currency found in their belongings suggest that the fighters may have been traveling to another destination through the Belarusian capital.
“The visitors drew attention to themselves, as they behaved unusual for Russian tourists and wore a military-style uniform. They did not drink alcohol, did not visit any entertainment venues, [and] they stayed away from everyone to try not to draw attention to themselves, “Belta’s report said.
Aleksey Kondratyev, a Russian senator and colonel with the army’s GRU intelligence unit, said the details of the arrests should be “controlled and the police in both countries need to cooperate on this,” the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
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