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When asked by journalists about the situation of suspected Wagner fighters arrested in Belarus the previous day, Ravkov said they were “giving evidence.”
Valery Vakulchik, chairman of the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB), reported to President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday that the 32 detained Russian citizens were members of the private military company Wagner.
“At around 5 pm 37 min. 32 citizens of the Russian Federation, members of a paramilitary organization, a private military company” Wagner “, were detained near Minsk, V. Vakulčik said during an urgent meeting of the Security Council of the Been on Wednesday.
Another Russian citizen was detained in the south of the country.
Mr. Lukashenko said he viewed the arrest of 33 Russian citizens as a special event and ordered Mr. Vakulchik to ask the Russian authorities to explain “what was happening”.
Ravkov said the detainees were suspected of planning a terrorist attack and that a criminal investigation had been launched. The official said that Belarus security services are currently looking for around 200 militants believed to be on the territory of the country.
The Russian ambassador to Minsk said that the Belarusian foreign ministry invited him on Thursday to speak about the arrest of suspected Wagner fighters.
“The meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus was organized in the first half of the day,” a Russian diplomat told journalists in Minsk on Thursday morning.
According to Belarusian state news agency BelTA, the police learned that more than 200 “fighters” have come to Belarus to destabilize the situation before next month’s presidential elections.
The latest event is the last unexpected twist in the presidential election campaign in Belarus, during which Lukashenko already sent his main rivals behind bars in the August 9 vote.
Russia is Belarus’ closest political and economic ally, but its relations sometimes become strained.
In recent years, Minsk has been under increasing pressure to get closer to Moscow, but Lukashenko has rejected the idea of total unification.
Wagner is an enigmatic Russian mercenary organization controlled by an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Thousands of Wagner contractors are believed to support Moscow’s interests in various conflicts abroad, including Syria, Ukraine and Libya.
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