Legally in Russia there is no concept of a private military company, said Sands

Legally in Russia there is no concept of private military companies (PMCs), said press Secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov, answering the question of how the Kremlin perceived the prosecution of detainees in Belarus Russians of involvement in the PMC "Wagner".

The Belarusian state Agency BelTA reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed source in law enforcement bodies that, under the Minsk detained "32 militants, the foreign private company Wagner", another was arrested in the South of the country. All of them, according to the Agency, the Russians. Thus, according to the report, earlier information was received of the arrival in Belarus ", more than 200 militants to destabilize the situation during the election campaign."

"What is PMC "Wagner"? In Russia legally, de jure, no such thing as a PMC, no. What is PMC? There are private security companies, private security Firms, private security firms. And such thing as a PMC, in the Russian legislation is not" - said Peskov.

He noted that he does not have any data on "any kind of military companies."

Responding to the remark of the journalist that Zakhar Prilepin allegedly confirmed that among those detained in Belarus Russians there are people with whom he was together in the Donbas, Peskov said: "We will consider this". On the question of whether or not the impact of this fact on the assessment that the detained Russians, press Secretary of the President replied in the negative.

• #Detention of Russians in Minsk
• #Donbass
• #Zakhar Prilepin
• #Dmitry Peskov
• #Minsk
• #Belarus