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On August 2nd, the Russian outlet Regnum published the electronic tickets of the Russians detained by Belarusian authorities and accused of plotting to carry out a terror attack.
According to the outlet, it received the digital tickets from its undisclosed sources.
On August 1st, it was announced that the Russians detained near Minsk had been taken into custody.
This was stated by the head of the Investigative Committee of Belarus Ivan Noskevich:
“33 citizens of the Russian Federation were recognized as suspects in this criminal case, and they were detained. On July 31, the investigation elected and sanctioned a preventive measure in the form of detention by the prosecutor. “
The reason for the suspicions of the Belarusian security officials in relation to the Russians was that they allegedly had more than enough time to fly to Istanbul after arriving in Minsk (as such they shouldn’t have remained in Minsk at all), and their rooms in the hotel and sanatorium “Belorusochka” were booked in advance.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko also alleged that the accused Russians had no evidence that they were simply in transit through Belarus:
“Many facts (which I was told of) are interesting. I see that our older brothers also fell silent. They no longer shout that they sent these guys to Istanbul. There was no Istanbul and could not be, as it turned out in reality,” Lukashenko said.
However, there appears to be evidence, as they have tickets – they were to fly from Minsk to Istanbul on July 25th, and then from Istanbul back to Moscow on October 19th.
This almost entirely proves the version that the mercenaries were to be deployed to locations in the Middle East and/or Africa, since Turkey is a very common midway point for that.
All of the tickets can be found here. [pdf]
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Moreover, every user can visit the website of Turkish Airlines and see tickets confirming their return flight from Istanbul. Screenshots can be found here. [pdf]
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The Russians were obviously traveling in transit through Belarus. This fact is undeniable.
Why did Minsk need to organize such a circus on the eve of the presidential elections? The answer is obvious: to find a non-existent enemy, to scare everyone – both the West and the people – and under the pretext of an imaginary and prove that Lukashenko and co. must be doing something “right” if the “evil Russians” are targeting them.
This points to the desperate situation Lukashenko is, leading up to the election. There is no doubt that Russian is Belarus’ closest ally, and carrying out a provocation such as this is a very showing symptom.
Lukashenko has even gone as far as to say that he is willing to give over the Russian detainees to Ukraine.
Unfortunately, we see that the authorities of Belarus themselves, with their own hands, are preparing this Maidan and have already created all the conditions for it. The only one who can still save Lukashenko from an internal coup that is already under way is Moscow. Sadly, it would appear that the Belarusian president didn’t draw any conclusions of what transpired in Ukraine.
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But there is no Wagner officially, so they could not have gone to downrange places in the first place.
;)
I’m stating the obvious here, but there looks to be quite a bit of tension between Lukashenko and Moscow. Maybe Belarus’s pivot to the West has something to do with it?
Why do they need to travel through Belarus to get to Istanbul? Isn’t there a direct flight from Moscow to Istanbul you would figure?
With Covid19, there are not as many regular flights available…..so it depends on their timetable in needing to arrive in Sudan & Libya
Flying to Libya and the LNA forces from Istanbul is hardly a sensible route. :)
Of course as the next thing, Lukasenko will demand gas almost for free – because he is the friend of Russia…
More likely a simple tactic to hide their real location of origin.. Though it was quite stupid that the Russian services did not coordinate this with Lukashenskos services. He runs a tight ship, and it was sure his services would notice such inofficial troop movements.
And with the current elections and high tensions, it was pretty sure a clever and seasoned politician like Lukashenko would use this as leverage.
IMHO Russia should stop playing this game of “we have no mercenaires”. Wagner and other groups have existet for nearly at decade at least. They are part of military and strategic planning and now even more important for Russia than some years ago.
Just change the damned part in the Russian constitution and make this officially legal finally, instead of denying what can no longer be denied.
Then there is no need for such bad attemps at obfuctication, and Russia could just move the mercs in undeclared diplomatic and military flights.
Its getting redicolus otherwise, and leading to blow back such as this..