MINSK. Feb 21 (Interfax) - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has described as "baseless" attempts to blame Minsk for arresting Russian nationals who joined the mass disturbances on December 19, 2010.
"If someone at the top wants to manipulate the situation or bend our will, they will not succeed. No one invited you to storm the government building," Lukashenko told the press on Saturday.
"We did not reproach Russia when its government building was being shelled. We did not intervene, did we?" he said.
"When unrest erupted on Manezhnaya Square, we showed our sympathy. Now why have you started playing into the hands of the West, or some internal forces, creating problems for us?" he said.
"Do not do that. Mind your own business, like America and the West should do. We won't bend, even if we have to go down into mud huts," he said.
The trial of Russian nationals Artyom Breus and Ivan Gaponov will be held in Minsk on February 22 on charges of participating in the unrest in Minsk on December 19, Councilor Vadim Gusev of the Russian Embassy in Belarus earlier told Interfax.
Eleven Russian citizens, among them Breus and Gaponov, were freed on December 30 following their detention on December 19 on charges of committing administrative offences. But one hour after they were released they were again detained as suspects in a criminal investigation into mass disturbances. All of them pleaded not guilty.
Breus and Gaponov, who had been charged with organizing the unrest, later had their charges re-qualified into "participation in mass unrest," a charge which carries prison sentence of three to eight years.