President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting on the safety of the election campaign, BelTA has learned.
“It will not be superfluous given the experience to date to re-evaluate the current situation and, if necessary, to develop additional measures to ensure security for the coming period”, he said and asked the heads of departments “to make appropriate proposals.”
29 July in Belarus were detained the 33 Russians from PMC Wagner, who were accused of intending to organize mass riots before the election. It turned out that some of them fought in the Donbass, and have Ukrainian citizenship. Kiev said that require extradition. On August 4, Lukashenka in his address to the nation and Parliament said he received information about another group “Russian militants” out of the PMC deployed to the South of Belarus to destabilize the situation.
Election of the President of Belarus on 9 August. Lukashenko goes for a sixth term. The campaign was accompanied by protests that often degenerate into clashes with Riot police and mass arrests.
The main rival of Lukashenko called the former head of Belgazprombank Victor Babariko, who was arrested on charges of creating a criminal group to bring hundreds of millions of dollars abroad. Another participant in the presidential race, the founder of the high-tech Park Valery Tsepkalo, left Belarus, fearing political persecution. The candidate was Svetlana Tikhanovski — wife of the arrested blogger Sergei Tikhanovski, who himself wanted to run.
