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Ukraine asks to extradite militants
On the day of the arrest, Belarusian state television showed famous footage of the detention, and Lukashenko publicly accused the Russian mercenaries of trying to disrupt the elections, and called the Security Council for an emergency meeting. In the following days, Lukashenka pretended to be indifferent to which country – Russia or Ukraine – would receive the mercenaries, inviting both states to present their arguments in favor of accepting the arrested militants.
As the interviews and documents obtained show, as soon as news of the arrest appeared, the Ukrainian authorities began to try to persuade Minsk to release the detainees. This required both formal actions – preparation of all charges and extradition documents required by law, and informal interaction with Minsk in an attempt to persuade Lukashenka to hand over all or at least some of the detainees. According to the testimony of the mercenaries, some – but not all – of the 33 received notices from the SBU of the criminal charges brought against them in Ukraine by registered mail to their home addresses. The charges are dated July 29, 2020, the day of detention in Minsk. On July 30, 2020, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus summoned the interim ambassador of Ukraine to Minsk to inform him of the arrest and to request information from Ukraine about possible crimes committed by these people on the territory of Ukraine.
On August 3, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine sent a request to Belarus to arrest 28 out of 33 people pending an official request for extradition. The official extradition request was filed only eight days later, on August 11, 2020.
At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities were engaged in informal interaction in at least two areas. According to one of the interviewed members of the GUR team, the SBU provided their Belarusian colleagues with information about the mercenary past of 33 people, as well as about the rest of the militants “recruited” by the PMC “MAR”. Probably, it was this tip that became the source of the statements of the Minsk authorities on July 30, 2020 that they are looking for up to 200 more people from the so-called PMC Wagner on the territory of Belarus. It is also known that President Zelensky personally lobbied for the extradition of militants to Ukraine in a telephone conversation with Alexander Lukashenko on August 5, 2020.
Russian authorities are trying to understand what is happening
The Russian authorities at first appeared puzzled by the arrests and charges brought against them by Lukashenka. Initial reactions from both Kremlin officials and Kremlin-friendly media outlets indicated bewilderment at what the 33 militants were doing in Minsk. After a day of silence on July 30, 2020 Dmitry Peskov commented on the arrests, denying accusations that Russia supported a coup d’etat to overthrow Lukashenko, and asked Minsk to provide “comprehensive information about what the Russians are accused of.” V a statementposted on the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow’s ambassador to Minsk insisted that the Russians were employees of a private security company waiting for a plane bound for a third country. July 31 Putin spent on this topic a meeting with the Security Council of the Russian Federation, but what exactly was discussed there is unclear.
The head of the “Union of Donbass Volunteers” Alexander Boroday, who previously headed the “government of the DPR” under the patronage of Surkov, confirmedthat among the detainees there are members of the “Union of Volunteers”, and demanded to release them. He also explained their appearance in Minsk by the “logistical situation” and by the fact that the militants were heading to a third country.
As early as August 3, 2020, Kremlin officials did not know the true background to the problems of 33 Russians. One of the then detained mercenaries told us that when the Russian consul came to him, he was not aware of what was happening. Both the consul and Peskov stated then that the detainees were with employees of a private security company who were in Minsk in transit on their way to a third country in connection with a business trip.
These initial statements by Russia were categorically rejected by the Belarusian authorities: “if a private military company were to be transferred somewhere, especially through the territory of Belarus, there would probably be certain explanations through some special services. Because this is a very serious matter. But it turned out that neither the FSB, nor the GRU, nor any other structure received such information, ” objected Chairman of the Security Council of Belarus Andrei Ravkov.
On August 5, 2020, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia submitted an official request to the Belarusian prosecutor’s office for the transfer of 32 detained Russians to Moscow.
As of August 6, 2020, the President of Belarus has not yet decided who to hand over the militants to. He invited the Prosecutors General of Ukraine and Russia to come to Belarus and “resolve the case with the Prosecutor General of Belarus on the basis of international agreements.”
However, further events seem to have influenced his final choice.
Militants are handed over to Russia
Although at first the Russian authorities and security services did not understand how the 33 Russian mercenaries ended up in Minsk, they appear to have solved the case a week later. Using unhindered access to the data of Russian providers, the Russian FSB was able to trace the Ukrainian trail, including through the IP from which the vacancy advertisements were published on Avito and through the Ukrainian registration of one of the travel agencies that ordered tickets for the mercenaries. These findings on August 6 were published in “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, which openly refers to sources in the FSB and published an interview with the FSB-schnik. On the same day, the Investigative Committee of Russia started an investigation on business.
The next day Putin called Lukashenka to discuss the situation with the detainees. However, Lukashenko did not immediately accept the Russian version (at least publicly). Back on August 9, 2020 – on the day of the presidential elections in Belarus – he kept repeatingthat he does not believe the Russian narrative about the role of a “third country” in the arrival of mercenaries.
After the elections, unprecedented protests erupted across Belarus against equally unprecedented mass fraud. Lukashenka desperately needed the support of the Kremlin, deprived of any vestiges of legitimacy after his election defeat. Putin congratulated Lukashenko on his victory on August 10, and over the next several days, Russian aircraft used by the FSB leadership made a series of flights to Minsk.
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