Why Belarus' suddenly arrested 33 men it says are Russian mercenaries

Associated Press

• Belarus arrested 33 men it says are mercenaries affiliated with Russian private security firm the Wagner Group.
• But the amount of available information about Russian mercenaries using Minsk as a way station en route to destinations like Syria, Libya and Sudan raises questions about why the arrests happened now, writes Candace Rondeaux, a senior fellow and professor of practice at the Center on the Future of War.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Which dictator is more trustworthy, Russia's Vladimir Putin or Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus?

In the end, it doesn't really matter, because the governments of both Russia and Belarus are probably lying about the arrest last week in Minsk of 33 Russian men identified by Belarusian authorities as mercenaries affiliated with the so-called Wagner Group, a network of private military security contractors linked to US-sanctioned Kremlin insider Yevgeny Prigozhin.See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: How Russia's most advanced military equipment stacks up against NATO hardware

See Also:

• The Navy's problems keep growing as it takes a leading role against Russia and China
• Despite warning about federal government overreach, militia groups are quiet amid crackdown in US cities
• The US already fought a cold war with China — it went very badly

SEE ALSO: NATO could face its ultimate test in a growing African proxy war