The Kremlin on Friday asked ex-Soviet ally Belarus to release 33 Russian men detained in Minsk over an alleged plot to organize riots ahead of next month’s presidential elections.
Belarussian security services on Wednesday arrested the group of Russians, saying they were mercenaries on a mission to destabilise the country in the run-up to the Aug. 9 polls.
Belarus’ KGB security service said the men were members of the Wagner group, a notorious private military firm reportedly controlled by an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
«We hope that in the very near future this incident will be explained by our Belarussian allies and that the citizens will be released,» Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He added that the «groundless detention of Russian citizens does not quite fit the parameters of allied relations.»
Belarus investigators said the men were working with prominent opposition critics Sergei Tikhanovsky and Mikola Statkevich who were both jailed and barred from contesting the ballot.
Peskov on Friday confirmed the Russian men were «employees of a private security company» who were staying temporarily in Belarus before traveling onwards to Istanbul.
«They missed their plane,» he said. «They had tickets to Istanbul.»
During a massive campaign rally in the capital Minsk, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya — the leading rival to Belarussian strongman Alexander Lukashenko — denied claims the opposition was working with Russian mercenaries to incite mass unrest.
Tikhanovskaya, who is married to the jailed blogger Tikhanovsky, said people only wanted a fair election.
She said Russian private contractors might have been using Belarus as a transit point for a long time and questioned the timing of this week’s arrests.
Kremlin Hails Abe’s ‘Invaluable Contribution’ To Relations
The Kremlin on Thursday hailed Shinzo Abe’s contribution to bilateral ties between Moscow and Tokyo after the Japanese Prime Minister announced his resignation for health reasons.
Russia’s relationship with Japan has been overshadowed by a decades-long territorial dispute over Tokyo’s claim to a chain of islands seized by the Soviet Union in the final days of World War II.
«Shinzo Abe really made an invaluable contribution to the development of bilateral Russian-Japanese relations,» President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told news agencies.
Putin and Abe met many times to try to find a solution to the impasse over the Kuril islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories.
But a flurry of diplomatic activity last year failed to bring about a formal peace treaty between Tokyo and Moscow to end World War II hostilities.
Peskov said Russia hopes Abe’s successor «will be equally committed to further developing Russian-Japanese relations.»
Talks had been stalled for decades due to Japan’s claim to four strategic islands, which have a population of around 20,000.
Russia has had military bases on the archipelago since World War II and has deployed missile systems on the islands.
«Of course, we wish Shinzo Abe a speedy recovery from all the health problems he mentioned,» Peskov said.
