MOSCOW (Reuters) – Belarus promised Russian diplomats to set up a meeting with the detained Russian citizens, who Minsk said were a group of Russian mercenaries, by the end of the day on Friday, Tass news agency quoted Russian ambassador to Belarus as saying.
Russia has demanded an explanation from Belarus over what it called Minsk’s wrongful arrest of more than 30 Russian citizens, which is worsening already strained relations between the two neighbouring countries.
On Thursday, Minsk arrested the alleged Russian mercenaries and said they were suspected of plotting “acts of terrorism” before a presidential election. [nL5N2F13FJ]
(Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh)
