Russia has not yet received information from Belarus justifying the detention of 33 Russian citizens on the territory of the republic. This was stated by the press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov.

He also said that on Friday, July 31, Vladimir Putin held an operational meeting with permanent members of the Security Council via videoconference. At it, in addition to various issues of the socio-economic domestic Russian agenda, the "groundless detention" of Russians was discussed.

“There was a detailed conversation about the incident with the detention of Russian citizens in Belarus. The hope was expressed that in the near future this story will be clarified and the unreasonably detained Russian citizens will be released, "Peskov said.

According to him, at the moment in Moscow "with a high degree of certainty" they say that the detainees were passing through Belarus.

“They had to fly off in transit to another country, their stay has nothing to do with Belarus itself or with Belarusian affairs,” he said.

Peskov also said that the Russians are employees of a private security company, they had tickets to Istanbul.

"They did not carry anything illegal and did not commit any illegal actions," added a Kremlin spokesman.

  • © Screenshot from the video: "Belarus 1"

Presidential elections are scheduled for August 9 in Belarus. There are five candidates running for the post of head of state, including the current leader of the republic, Alexander Lukashenko. Dmitry Peskov expressed hope that the election campaign will be held in accordance with "all the principles and norms of free expression of will."

“Belarus is our ally, of course, we want the campaign to be as successful as possible. We are not planning to interfere, ”he concluded.

In addition, it became known that the Russian consul received permission from the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Belarus to visit the detained citizens of the Russian Federation.

“Now we are technically waiting for the permission to be transferred and the employees can carry out their functions,” RIA Novosti quotes representatives of the diplomatic mission.

It should be reminded that the detention near Minsk of 33 Russians, who are allegedly "fighters of a foreign private company Wagner" on Wednesday, July 29, reported the Belarusian news agency BELTA. Later, in another material, it was claimed that more than 200 people allegedly arrived in Belarus "to destabilize the situation during the election campaign."

Alexander Lukashenko, at a meeting of the republican Security Council, characterized the incident as an "emergency." State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Andrei Ravkov said that criminal proceedings were instituted against the detained Russians under article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, explaining that it was about “preparing a terrorist act”. The Belarusian Investigative Committee, in turn, noted that the detention is connected with suspicion of preparing mass riots (Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus). The Russians were provided with lawyers, while the lawyers were asked to "sign a non-disclosure agreement on the data of the preliminary investigation."

“Each of the detainees, according to the law, has the opportunity to exercise their right to defense, and they were given such an opportunity,” RIA Novosti quotes the press secretary of the Belarusian Republican Bar Association (BRCA) Daria Shupenka.

At the same time, Belarus handed over to Ukraine a list of detained Russians for verification for their allegedly possible participation in hostilities in the Donbass and the presence of Ukrainian citizenship.

“We received the list of citizens detained by Belarus, and the Belarusian Foreign Ministry asked us to hand over the specified document to the competent authorities of Ukraine for checking whether the indicated persons committed crimes in our state and participating in hostilities,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba during briefing.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called on Minsk "to stop whipping up unnecessary, negative emotions." Russian diplomats stressed that "the attempt to present what happened as external interference in the affairs of the republic is at least puzzling."

It was also noted that Minsk's odious interpretation of the detention of the Russians “does not stand up to criticism,” since a group of Russian citizens went in transit through Minsk to Istanbul, having all the necessary documents.

“All logistics on the territory of Belarus were provided by a Belarusian company. For unknown reasons, the group did not get on its Minsk-Istanbul flight and had to stay in Belarus awaiting the purchase of new air tickets by the Belarusian company, ”the Russian Foreign Ministry explained.

The foreign ministry hopes that Belarus will approach the establishment of the circumstances of the incident "carefully and objectively", as well as in close cooperation with the Russian side.