(Newswire.net— July 31, 2020) — Relations between Minsk and Moscow have never been tenser. After discussing the price of oil and customs duties, Belarus announced that it suspects that a group of 32 Russian mercenaries, who have already been arrested, planned to commit “terrorist acts” ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for August 9.
Another 200 mercenaries are still in Belarus and the local security forces are looking for them, Belarusian Security Council State Secretary Andrey Raukov said yesterday. Pro-state media published the full names of the alleged terrorists and a video recording of their arrest. Members of the Wagner group, the most famous Russian private military company, known for its missions in Syria and Libya, were detained.
“I can already see the reaction of the Russians. They are already preparing an apology, as they came along. They have to somehow justify their dirty intentions. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said. “Then we must immediately seek an explanation from the Russian Federation,” Alexander Lukashenko added.
Belarus’s official news agency published the names and dates of birth of 32 detained alleged Russian fighters whom they described as employees of the Wagner Group, a mercenary recruiting company linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a longtime associate of President Vladimir V. Putin, the New York Times reports.
The Russian embassy in Minsk said it had asked the Belarusian authorities about the reports of a mercenary force but had received no official information about any Russians being detained.
Tensions over the incident only exacerbate the already strained relations of traditional allies.
“We know that 33 Russians were arrested in Belarus yesterday. Officialy Minsk announced that they were part of the plan to destabilize Belarus before the elections. But we do not have such information,” said the spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov.
The Russian ambassador was asked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus about the activities of the Wagner group, which otherwise consists of demobilized military special forces and former officers.
“What is Wagner’s private army? There is no such concept in Russia, at least not legally,” Peskov said.
The action of capturing alleged terrorists is the latest turn in the presidential campaign of Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus in an authoritarian manner since 1994. Before that, the candidacy of two opposition opponents was not accepted. One of them sought refuge from arrest in Russia.
“This time I had to leave. If I had been arrested, I would not have been able to speak openly about what is happening in Belarus,” says former presidential candidate Valery Tsepkalo.
This time, Lukashenko also faced the first serious protests on the streets of Belarusian cities. And since, according to the estimates of foreign experts, he is likely to win this election as well, the Belarusian lifelong president this time feels threatened by both the East and the West.
The same scenario occurred in Montenegro and allowed president Milo Djukanovic to win elections as an indisputable ruler of this Mediterranean country that was recently accepted into NATO. Right before the election, the Montenegro president announced that allegedly Russian terrorists were arrested who conspired to destabilize the country and assassinate him.
The move portrayed Djukanovic to remain President of Montenegro and cast an image of a strong leader which helped him win the elections again and maintain his rule that has lasted for more than 30 years.
Same as in Belarus, Montenegrian authorities failed to provide concrete evidence that the arrested citizens, who were in fact Serbian nationality, have anything to do with terrorism accusations.