Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the leader of Belarus on Friday to release 33 Russian security contractors who were arrested on charges of planning to foment unrest ahead of the country's presidential election.
Belarusian authorities accused the Russian contractors of planning to instigate mass riots as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko contends with significant opposition protests as he seeks a sixth term in Sunday's election.
Putin and Lukashenko spoke by phone Friday, their first conversation since the Russians' were arrested on July 29 outside Belarus's capital of Minsk. The Kremlin said the two leaders “voiced confidence that the situation will be settled in the spirit of mutual understanding typical for cooperation between the two countries.”
FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2017 file photo, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, left, greets Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Minsk, Belarus. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020, urged his Belarusian counterpart to release 33 Russian contractors arrested in Belarus on charges of planning to foment unrest ahead of the country's presidential vote. (Tatyana Zenkovich, Pool Photo via AP, File)
It added that “Russia is interested in the preservation of a stable domestic political situation in Belarus and calm atmosphere at the forthcoming presidential election.”
Government security officials have linked the Russians to the jailed husband of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old former teacher who is running to unseat the authoritarian Lukashenko after his 26 years in power. Moscow has said the security contractors only were in Belarus because they missed a connecting flight to another country.
Belarusian authorities claimed the arrested contractors worked for the Wagner company, a private military firm is linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman who was indicted in the United States for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Wagner has allegedly deployed hundreds of military contractors to eastern Ukraine, Syria and Libya.
The government in Minsk has further irked Moscow by raising the possibility that some of the contractors could be handed over to Ukraine, which wants them on charges of fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists during the long conflict in eastern Ukraine..
The conciliatory Kremlin readout of the Putin-Lukashenko call marks a step back from a harsh rebuke issued earlier this week by Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council.
Without mentioning Lukashenko by name, Medvedev said that by arresting the contractors, the Belarusian leadership had turned bilateral ties into “small change in the election campaign” and will face “sad consequences.”
Neighboring Russia and Belarus allies, have a union agreement that envisages close political, economic and military ties between the traditional allies but stops short of a full merger.
During his time as the first and only president of ex-Soviet nation Belarus since it became independent, Lukashenko has relied on Russian subsidies and loans to for his nation’s economy but fiercely resisted Moscow’s push for control over Belarus’s economic assets.
The Kremlin turned the heat up on the Belarusian president earlier this year by withdrawing some of the subsidies and warning Lukashenko that he would have to accept closer economic and political integration to continue receiving Russian energy at a discount. The Belarusian leader denounced Moscow's stance as part of the Kremlin's alleged efforts to deprive Belarus of its independence.