on Wednesday the Belarusian KGB announced the arrest of 33 Russians. They allegedly employees of PMCs arrived in Minsk to destabilize the situation. Half of them participated in the fighting in the Donbass on the side of the unrecognized republics. After the emergency meeting of the Belarusian security Council and a call to the ambassadors of Russia and Ukraine, the foreign Ministry became clear – there is a risk of extradition to Kiev.
On Wednesday afternoon the authorities of Belarus reported about the detention of 33 Russians who allegedly were preparing to destabilize the situation in the Republic. Detainees whose personal information were soon posted online, the Belarusian KGB announced by fighters from private military companies (PMCs) Wagner. In operational footage of the arrest were the personal belongings of Russian passports, phones, credit cards, condoms and money, US dollars and Sudanese pounds. In addition, was shown to form the detainees, however this is the usual camouflage.
As it became known later, 32 the Russians were caught in one of the resorts in the outskirts of Minsk, and one in the South, in the town of Kalinkavichy, Gomel region.
According to the Belarusian law enforcers, they received information about the arrival of “more than 200 militants to destabilize the situation during the election campaign.” The investigative Committee of Belarus started checking the detainees. According to official sources, a group of 32 people has arrived in Minsk on the night of July 25 and checked into one of the capital’s hotels. The Russians left the hotel on Monday and moved to the health resort “Belorusochka” of Minsk district, where he was taken into custody.
“Belorusochka” is located on the Bank of reservoir Drozdy, four kilometers from Minsk. One of the campers told the publication TUT.BY that the detainees on view until 40 years old, athletic build. “Were quiet. Day was swinging on the Playground. Yesterday was a disco, and women are expected that they come to dance,” he admitted, resting.
In the list of the detainees were former battalion writer Zakhar Prilepin, who fought in the Donbass.
“But the fact that the people who fought and are fighting in the army of the DPR and LPR are fighting not only there, has long been known”, – Prilepin himself confirmed in his Telegram channel, adding that “they go to Syria, and in other warm warring countries”.
Telegram-channel posted by Seeds Pegova WarGonzo writes with reference to sources in the intelligence agencies that the Minsk vagnerova was used as a transit point for the transfer to other countries – mainly African. “Naturally, the Belarusian secret services were previously informed and warned, but in fact provided a relaxed mode during a pandemic the transfer of our soldiers on the Eastern front”, – stated in the message.
The President Lukashenko “of course, was aware of what vagnerova located in Minsk and where to fly.”
“Now the main question – why was it now to stick a knife in the back neighbor?”, – rhetorically asks the pegs.
This version adheres to the expert of the Russian Council on international Affairs, military analyst Kirill Semenov.
“If you take into account the need to maintain PMCs Wagner in Africa, to deliver reinforcements and, conversely, to return from there people, the assumption that the territory of Belarus was used as a kind of hub, it is possible,” Semenov said the newspaper VIEW.
“While Russia had closed borders in connection with the coronavirus, it is possible that PMCs and Wagner was forced to use this option.”
“In the previous months repeatedly disagreements between Moscow and Minsk. It is not excluded that Lukashenka decided to use the PMC Wagner to submit a signal. Maybe not the whole of Russia, and some representatives of the Russian elite. It is difficult to say who exactly,” concluded Semenov.
That the soldiers were framed, I’m sure former Prime Minister LNR, a political scientist Marat Bashirov.
“Cannon fodder, as they say in the novels. The elections in Belarus, they have no relationship and is not intended to have.
But the fact remains detained 33 Russians, like soldiers, and some of which are relevant to the Donbass,” writes Bashirov in his Telegram channel.
The expert does not exclude that Kiev will make a request for their extradition “and the old Man will suspend him until after his election, and then will give the Russians back to Russia”. By the way, former Minister of foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin has called on the transfer of detainees to Kiev. Writes the ex-Minister on Twitter, you can use them to exchange for the Ukrainian prisoners.
Note that in the basis of the Ukrainian website “Peacemaker” some of the detainees listed as “freelance staff of GRU Russian Federation of PMCs Wagner”, others – as a DNR. It clarifies the newspaper “Nasha Niva”, one of those arrested was a 42-year-old Andrew bakunovich, who fought in the Donbass, leading a sniper group there. It was he who was arrested separately from the others – at home, in Kalinkavichy, Gomel region. According to his mother, son “quietly spending time” with his wife and children, and about five in the morning he was detained by the security forces. “Took and taken to Minsk”, – said the woman.
Another arrested Gennady Fetisov, as he mentioned in the Ukrainian press, was born and lived all his life in Donetsk, that is, most likely, Kiev still considers him as its citizen.
According to the analysts, the topic of Wagner used Minsk is clearly based on a sympathetic reaction from the West. “To the West the theme of Russian PMCs – as a red rag. Lukashenko, probably counting on the fact that works a conditioned reflex, who can be against Wagner, that with us,” writes the Telegram-the channel “Russia in global politics”.
Associate Professor cafe��ry political theory at MGIMO Kirill Koktysh is sure that what happened can be nothing other than a provocation, and clumsily organized: “All too reminiscent of the joke about how Stirlitz went to Berlin and nothing gave him as a spy, except budenovka on the head and a parachute behind your back.” Koktysh suggests that the detainees, though, and could be related to the PMC, most likely was used “in the dark”.
“The only question is in whose interests? Russia is unprofitable: such actions do not fit into its official doctrine. From the current balance of power in Belarus, Russia win. After Pro-Western forces in Belarus was defeated in fact, to upset the balance of the Moscow disadvantageous,” – said Koktysh of the newspaper LOOK.
“The arrest may be an attempt of the Belarusian political strategists to create a situation that legitimitely for the authorities apply strict measures and even the introduction of a state of emergency,” – says Koktysh. In favor of this version may reflect the fact that a popular blogger Maxim Shabutsky recently started to call on the Youtube-channel of the Belarusians to join the “assault battalions” of the nationalist wing, said the expert.
“Lukashenka your election campaign conducts in war mode. Every campaign needs an enemy. This time the enemy was associated with Moscow,” – said in an interview with the newspaper VIEW, the former leader of the United civil party, the Belarusian opposition leader Anatoly Lebedko. He commented on the arrest in Minsk of the team of Russians, which the KGB of Belarus accuses the preparation of the “destabilization” of the country.
“The image of the enemy every time helped the President to convince voters that without Lukashenko with this enemy cannot cope. The role of this enemy has been all – entrepreneurs, trade unions, the opposition and the West. This time the enemy was associated with Moscow,” – said Lebedko.
Recently Lukashenka appeared in public dressed in camouflage, the image of a leader who protects the sovereignty of the state, visits military units. That is, it is necessary to create a sense of threat to the sovereignty, the said Lebedko.
Just as last weekend in a spetsnaz brigade, he said that in Belarus came “bandits of foreign PMCs” to overthrow the government, reminded the opposition leader. “And the situation with the arrested “vagnerovsky” fits” in this strategy,” he concluded. It is not excluded that the decision on arrest of Russians in that moment was already made.
On Wednesday evening, Lukashenko has summoned an emergency meeting with members of the security Council, which has told me to ask the Russian authorities for clarification. “I look at the reaction of the Russians. They are already apologizing, saying that we were brought here. Clearly, it is necessary to justify their dirty n��the intention,” said the President, who called the incident “an accident”.
And the Secretary of security Council of the Republic Andrei Ravkov after the meeting stated that will be called ambassadors of not only Russia but also Ukraine. “Now, according to the available information on the results of the surveys these people, about 14 people – those who passed through the program taking into account people who were recorded in the Donbass. Therefore invited the Ambassador of Ukraine on this issue”, – said Ravkov. He also added that “operational cover” on the Russian border will be strengthened.
Meanwhile the Russian Embassy has promised to request from the competent authorities in Minsk with details about the detention of Russians.
