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Recent events are the latest unexpected turn in the Belarusian presidential election campaign, during which Lukashenko, 65, who has been in power for almost three decades, has already sent his main rivals behind bars before the vote. from August 9.
Belarusian security services said on Wednesday they had arrested more than 30 Russian mercenaries who had come on a mission to destabilize the country, and the Kremlin has dismissed such allegations as “insinuations”.
The Belarusian investigative committee said on Thursday it had launched an investigation into the detention of Russian citizens suspected of “organizing mass riots”.
Minsk says the 33 detainees belong to the Russian private military company Wagner, a secret organization controlled by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ally and used to defend Moscow’s interests in Ukraine, Syria and Libya.
According to investigators, those Russian citizens worked alongside famous critics of Lukashenko, 41-year-old video blogger Sergei Tichanovsky, and one of the most famous leaders of the Belarusian opposition, Nikolai Statkevich, 63, who are currently behind bars.
Criminal proceedings have been launched in Belarus against “Tikhanyovsky, Statkevich and 33 detained Russian citizens,” Sergei Kabakovich, spokesman of the Commission of Inquiry, told AFP.
“They worked together,” he said.
Tichanovsky, who called Lukashenko a “cockroach”, was not allowed to participate in the elections, so his wife Svetlana is running for president.
The investigative committee also announced Thursday that another criminal investigation against Tichanovsky had been opened. He is accused of inciting “social hostility” and of calling for violence against law enforcement officials.
Belarusian officials warned that security measures will tighten as Tihanovskaya prepares for a major demonstration in Minsk on Thursday.
At that time, N. Statkevičius challenged Lukashenko in the 2010 elections and was sentenced to six years in prison.
In August 2015, President Lukashenko pardoned Statkevich and other opposition activists, but his sentence was upheld for another eight years because inciting “mass unrest” was considered a particularly serious crime and he was not allowed to participate in the upcoming elections. .
Belarus also says it is looking for dozens of other fighters who may be in the country.
Moscow categorically denies being involved in this and stresses that Minsk is a close ally.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the allegations that “the organizations are sending people from Russia to destabilize the situation in Belarus” are “nothing more than insinuations.”
Mr. Peskov emphasized that Russia and Belarus were “very close allies and partners”.
“Mode changed”
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.
Analysts have found it difficult to explain the arrests of Russian citizens. Some say the move was a carefully planned move that gave Lukashenko an excuse to deal even more with the opposition.
Arseniy Sivicki, head of the Belarusian Center for Strategic Research and Foreign Policy, says he believes Russia may have sent mercenaries “to organize provocations on the eve of the elections.”
That could provide a “pretext for the Kremlin to intervene by force to change the regime,” he said.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant wrote that the “scandal could seriously complicate relations between Russia and its neighbor.”
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said it had invited Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors to discuss the matter.
The Foreign Ministry spoke of “proven evidence” that some of the detained Russian citizens were fighting in a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, and several had Ukrainian citizenship.
The Ukrainian security service said it planned to “start [sulaikytųjų] extradition. “
Russian publicist Zachar Prilepin, who fought in eastern Ukraine alongside Moscow-backed separatists, said he knew some of the detainees.
In his Facebook message, Z. Prilepin assumed that fighters in Belarus probably used it as a transit point to “somewhere else.” According to him, Belarus “definitely knows this very well.”
National television showed several Russian passports allegedly belonging to the detainees, as well as stacks of dollars, condom packages and sheets of paper with Arabic texts. The detainees also appear to have held Sudanese pounds.
Russian Ambassador: Russians detained in Belarus were going to fly to Istanbul
Russian citizens detained in Belarus planned to fly to Istanbul, Russian Ambassador to Minsk Dmitry Mezencev said on Thursday.
“Russian citizens planned to fly from Minsk to Istanbul on July 25 and had no intention of staying in Belarus for a longer period of time, but then planned to return to the Russian capital from another country by plane, without passing through the territory Belarusian, “said Mezencev.
Previously, he said that those Russian citizens had to transit through Belarus to another country, but they were late for the plane, so they had to stay in a sanatorium near Minsk.
According to him, the Russians may be employees of a private security company that, in fulfilling its obligations under a trade agreement, must ensure the protection of infrastructure and energy resources abroad, “but not in Belarus.”
“His income was based on a contract with one of the commercial companies registered here in Belarus, and every Russian who came had a work contract with the company,” added the diplomat.
On Wednesday, the state news agency BelTA reported that 32 “fighters from the foreign private military company” Wagner “were detained near Minsk, and another person was detained in the south of the country.
This information was confirmed by Valerijus Vakulčikas, head of the State Security Committee (KGB), during an urgent meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday night.
On Thursday, the Belarus Investigative Committee announced that it had launched an investigation into the detention of Russian citizens and that a criminal case had been launched for planning mass unrest.
It is not allowed to publish, quote or reproduce the information of the BNS news agency in the media and on the Internet without the written consent of UAB “BNS”.
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