“It's obvious now. This is a special services action. The people you mentioned were blindly used to move them to the territory of Belarus, to set completely legal goals for them, they had, as they were told, to leave for third countries ... for absolutely legal work. In fact, they were dragged into the territory of Belarus and presented as a possible striking force to sway the situation during the election campaign, which was absolutely untrue, ”said the head of state.
According to him, the Russian border guards did not release the people in question, but "they were actually brought in using forged documents."
“This is an operation of the Ukrainian special services together with American ones. Now this is reliably known. Some participants in this process, well, or observers - people, well-informed - they do not even hide this now, "Putin stressed.
On August 14, Belarus handed over to Russia 32 Russians detained at the end of July near Minsk. Another detained citizen of Russia, who also has Belarusian citizenship, remained on the territory of Belarus.
At the same time, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine sent Belarus a request for the extradition of 28 of the 33 Russian citizens detained near Minsk.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, in turn, called the detention of Russians in Belarus a provocation of a third country.