Tens Of Thousands Rally In Minsk In Support Of Opposition Presidential Candidate, 30 July 2020

Tens of thousands of people have gathered in the Belarusian capital for the largest opposition rally in the country since the start of the campaign ahead of a presidential election on August 9...

The rally comes after Belarusian authorities linked [Syarhey] Tsikhanouski and other jailed opposition politicians with a probe launched against 33 contractors from the private Russian military company Vagner, who were detained and allegedly wanted to destabilize the country ahead of the August presidential election...

[Refering to the contractors, opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya] said: "No one will believe that these hitmen have been dispatched here specifically for the elections." ...

The Vagner Group is a Russian paramilitary organization believed to be run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an influential Russian businessman close to President Vladimir Putin. Its fighters have turned up in conflicts in Syria, Libya, Ukraine, and Africa.