The detained in Minsk Russians crossed the border legally, said the Ambassador

Detainees in Belarus, the Russians officially crossed the border, showing the guards the documents giving the basis to work, said the Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Minsk Dmitry Mezentsev.

Belarusian media reported on 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, as claimed by the Agency, the Russians. Later, the Embassy of the Russian Federation said that the official has received from the foreign Ministry of Belarus a notice about the arrest of 32 Russians.

"They were prisoners of labour contracts with one of the firms, data on which the Embassy offers. And there is nothing illegal. They crossed the border, upon presentation of the staff of border service of the documents that give reason to conduct working activities in the territory of the Republic", - the Ambassador said Mezentsev in the First channel.

According to the Investigative Committee of Belarus, 33 of the detained Russians from PMC Wagner are suspects in a criminal case about preparation of mass riots. Thus a press-the Secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov on Thursday said that "in Russia legally, de jure, no such thing as a PMC, no." He noted that he does not have any data on "any kind of military companies."

Earlier Mezentsev said that the Russians arrived in the sanatorium "Belorusochka" of Minsk because of the delay on the flight to a third country. According to him, they had intended to fly from Minsk to Istanbul on 25 July and did not plan to be in Republic for a long time, and much later planned to return to the Russian capital from another state by plane, bypassing the territory of Belarus.

• #Detention of Russians in Minsk
• #Dmitry Mezentsev
• #The Russian Embassy in Belarus
• #Minsk
• #Belarus