MINSK, Belarus (AP) – Belarus’s authoritarian leader accused Russia of harboring “dirty intentions” wednesday after his national intelligence company arrested more than 30 Russian army contractors before the presidential election in Belarus.
President Alexander Lukashenko, seeking a sixth term in the 9th election in August, has continually accused Russia of trying to force Belarus to abandon its post-Soviet independence. Throughout his 26 years of strong rule, Lukashenko relied on Moscow’s subsidies and politics, but fiercely resisted Russia’s efforts to take control of Belarus’s economic assets.
State news firm BelTA said a SWAT team from the Belarusian State Security Committee, still known through its so-called Soviet-era KGB, had arrested 32 other people from the Russian army personal corporation Wagner overnight at an outdoor health center. capital, Minsk.
Another user arrested in the south of the country, BelTA reported, which published a list of russian detainees.
Yulia Goncharova, spokesperson for the main Belarusian research agency, the Commission of Inquiry, showed that the arrests declined to comment.
Belarusian state television broadcast images of SWAT agents handcuffing Russians dressed only in trousers face down in their rooms.
The Russian embassy in Belarus did not comment quickly and said it had obtained official data on the arrests.
In televised statements at a Security Council meeting, Belarusian KGB President Valery Vakulchik told Lukashenko that the detainees are members of Wagner.
The Belarusian president then rebuked Russia for covering up his “dirty intentions” and told his officials to ask Russia for an official explanation.
“It is obligatory to ask the competent Russian structures without delay about what is happening,” Lukashenko said.
Wagner, linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman accused in the United States of meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, is said to have deployed heaps of army contractors in eastern Ukraine, Syria and Libya.
Security Council Secretary Andrei Ravkov noted that snipers and explosives experts were among the detainees, and said the Belarusian government would reinforce the events of the security crusade. Border controls with Russia will also be tighter, he said.
Ravkov said 14 of the detainees had fought alongside Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry will invite the Ukrainian ambassador to discuss the matter, he said.
BelTA said Belarusian security forces were acting on reports that more than 200 activists had arrived in Belarus on a project to destabilize the country during the election campaign.
Alexander Alesin, an independent army trained in Minsk, said Belarus has long provided a transit hall for sensitive Russian operations abroad.
“The Russians have used Belarus to deploy special troops to other countries for many years,” Alesin said. “Belarusian security agencies knew all about this and until recently they were providing assistance and assistance to the Russians.”
Alesin said the arrests appear to be a component of Lukashenko’s efforts to mobilize before the vote.
“The government are members of Wagner to scare other people before the vote by inventing a mystery about Russian activists,” Alesin argued. “The photographs of the arrests seem ridiculous: if Wagner’s other 33 people intended to organize riots, they would not have used combat latticework and T-shirts with the word “Russia” and would remain in the same place.”
He added that the Belarusian leader would possibly also have tried to express his anger with the Kremlin: “With the arrests, Lukashenko must also show Russia his position, while relations with the Kremlin have deteriorated after Russia drastically reduced its subsidies.”
Belarusian television reported that Russian political representative Vitaly Shklyarov, born in Belarus, was also arrested on Wednesday. He accused Shklyarov of helping mobilize opposition supporters. In the past, Shklyarov has worked as a political representative in the United States and Russia.
Lukashenko, former leader of a state farm, has ruled Belarus since elected the first president of the former Soviet country in July 1994. Meanwhile, he suppressed dissent and press freedom in the country of 9.5 million more people and prolonged his reign. through elections that the West has criticized as rigged.
The Belarusian elections prevented the president’s two main rivals from appearing in the electoral newspaper.
One of the opponents, Viktor Babariko, former director of a giant bank controlled in Russia, was jailed for money laundering and tax evasion.
Another, Valery Tsepkalo, a former ambassador to the United States and founder of a thriving high-tech progression park, denied registration after the government invalidated some of the signatures he had gathered to qualify.
Tsepkalo fled to Russia with his children after receiving a warning that his arrest was imminent and the government was contemplating stripping him of his paternity rights and taking his children.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the wife of imprisoned blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, is the opposition candidate who will be allowed to vote.
Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.