Belarusian authorities said they had detained dozens of Russian private military contractors days before Belarus’s presidential vote, signaling an escalation of tensions between the two neighbors.
Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, 65, who is seeking a sixth term in the Aug. 9 vote, has repeatedly accused Russia of trying to force Belarus to abandon its post-Soviet independence. Throughout his 26-year term, Lukashenko has relied on subsidies and political support from Russia, but has fiercely resisted Moscow’s efforts to gain control of the country’s economic assets.
The arrest of dozens of Russians accused of planning to destabilize Belarus during the election campaign pushes political tensions between the countries to a new level. Some observers see the move as a Lukashenko campaign stunt.
Belarusian state news agency BelTA said 32 members of Russia’s private military company Wagner had been detained overnight in a sanatorium outside Minsk by a Swat team from the Belarusian state security committee, still known to its name from the Soviet era, KGB. Another person was detained in the south of the country, said BelTA, which published a list of the detained Russians.
Yulia Goncharova, spokeswoman for Belarus’ main investigative agency, the Investigation Committee, confirmed the arrests but had no further comment.
Lukashenko called a meeting of his security council and ordered the KGB chief to ask Russia for an official explanation. “It is necessary to immediately ask the relevant Russian structures to explain what is going on,” he said.
The Russian embassy in Belarus did not immediately comment on the report, saying it had received no official information about the arrests by the Belarusian authorities.
BelTA said that Belarusian law enforcement agencies were reporting that more than 200 militants had arrived in Belarus on a mission to destabilize the country during the election campaign.
Alexander Alesin, an independent military expert based in Minsk, said Belarus had long provided a transit corridor for sensitive Russian operations abroad.
“The Russians have used Belarus to deploy special troops to other countries for many years,” said Alesin. “Belarusian security agencies knew everything and until recently offered aid and assistance to the Russians.”
The Wagner company, linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman accused by the United States of meddling in the 2016 presidential election, allegedly deployed hundreds of military contractors in Syria and Libya.
Alesin said the arrests appear to be part of Lukashenko’s efforts to mobilize support before the vote.
“Authorities are using Wagner members to scare people before the vote by inventing a thriller about Russian militants,” said Alesin. “The footage of the arrests seems silly: if the 33 Wagner people were planning to stage riots, they would not have worn combat uniforms and T-shirts with the word ‘Russia’ and would stay in one place.”
He added that the Belarusian leader might also have wanted to vent his anger at the Kremlin: “With the arrests, Lukashenko also wants to show Russia his place, as relations with the Kremlin have worsened after Russia drastically cut its subsidies.”
Lukashenko, the former head of the state farm, has ruled the ex-Soviet nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist, cracking down on dissent and free media and extending his rule through votes the West has criticized. as fraudulent.
He is expected to easily win re-election on August 9 despite a wave of opposition protests fueled by public fatigue with his government and a painful economic consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.
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