The citizens of Russia detained in Belarus while crossing the border of the republic presented to the border service officers the documents giving the right to work in the country. This was announced on Thursday, July 30, by the Russian Ambassador to Minsk Dmitry Mezentsev on the air of Channel One.
“They crossed the border, presenting the documents to the border service officers, which give grounds to conduct work on the territory of the republic,” he said. According to Mezentsev, the Russians had contracts with one of the companies, about which the embassy has no data.
Earlier on Thursday, the Russian ambassador announced plans of Russian citizens detained in Belarus to fly to Istanbul, but they missed their plane, so they had to stay at the Belorusochka sanatorium.
The day before, the Belarusian media reported that 32 employees of a foreign private military company were detained near Minsk. The head of the State Security Committee of Belarus, Valery Vakulchik, clarified that the detainees were employees of the Wagner PMC. Later, the Secretary of State of the Security Council of Belarus Andrei Ravkov stated that some of the detainees had “Ukrainian origin and also have Ukrainian citizenship”.
These events were allegedly associated with the arrival of more than 200 people in Belarus “to destabilize the situation during the election campaign.” The detainees were suspected of preparing a terrorist attack, a criminal case was opened against them.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko instructed to contact the relevant structures of Russia for clarifications in connection with the incident. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry notified the Russian embassy in Minsk about the arrest of the Russians.