MINSK. Aug 3 (Interfax) - Representatives of the consular section at the Russian Embassy in Belarus have met with the Russian citizens detained in the country on Saturday.
"Employees of the consular section at the Russian embassy met with the Russian citizens detained in Belarus," the embassy said on Twitter.
The Russian Embassy's Consul Kirill Pletnyov, in turn, told the Rossiya 24 television channel on Saturday that "a meeting of the head of the consular section and the consul with the 33 detained Russian citizens at a Belarusian penitentiary" took place "yesterday evening."
A copy of the ruling on a restrictive measure in the form of placement in custody was presented to each of the detainees, he said. "We can provide a copy of the decision on the use of a restrictive measure in the form of placement in custody. Such document was presented to each our Russian citizens; the biased nature of the Belarusian authorities' actions is clearly evident form it," Pletnyov said.
"I would like to point out that [the decision] refers to the deliberate actions of a group of persons in collusion with [Belarusian opposition activists] Tikhanovsky and Statkevich, which, in our view, is completely unsubstantiated and false attitude," the consult said.
On July 29, Belarusian law enforcement agencies detained 32 fighters of the Wagner private military company outside Minsk. Another person was detained in the south of Belarus.
Later the same day, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko convened an urgent meeting of the Belarusian Security Council, at which, head of the Belarusian State Security Committee Valery Vakulchik confirmed this information. Lukashenko instructed Vakulchik to request the relevant explanation from the Russian authorities.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that "an odious interpretation" suggested by Belarus regarding the detention of 33 Russian citizens stands no criticism and demanded that Minsk immediately ensure consular employees' access to the detained Russians.
On July 30, the Belarusian Security Service said that it will initiate the detainees' extradition from Belarus. On July 31, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry shared the detainee list with Ukraine and requested to hand the aforementioned document to the relevant authorities of Ukraine.
On July 30, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Russia does not recognize Ukrainian citizenship of the people detained in Belarus. Asked how Russia would react if some of those detained in Belarus are extradited to Ukraine, considering that half of them are Ukrainian citizens, Peskov replied, "We don't recognize their Ukrainian citizenship. They are citizens of Russia."
On Friday, the Russians' detension in Belarus was discussed at an online session of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council. "They [the participants in the session] expressed hope that some clarity will be added to this story in the near future, and then these unreasonably detained Russian citizens will be freed," Peskov said.