March 18, at a meeting with representatives of the Russian media, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko accused the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov for having sent two groups of young people in Belarus on December 19, 2010. "Boris Nemtsov has sent two groups of 12 people to Minsk, two of whom have remained," the president said.
«They are just thugs, which should be sentenced,» Alexander Lukashenko said, noting that «prison didn’t need them.»
«Why should we need them? For Belarus, it would be like ten cases upon Khodorkovsky (businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky — Telegraf) for Russia,» said the president, reports «Moskovsky Komsomolets.»
According to Alexander Lukashenko, the arrested Russian citizen, Artem Breus and Ivan Gaponov, are only nominally citizens of Russia, and «now they are asking to let them stay here.»
Breus and Gaponov Not to Appeal Sentence
This was stated by Ivan Gaponov. «I’ve decided not to appeal the verdict so that all this could soon come to an end. Artem, as far as I know, has also decided not to lodge an appeal,» he said, RIA «Novosti» news agency.
As Telegraf previously reported, the trial against citizens of Russia Artem Breus and Ivan Gaponov — figures in the case of December 19 — ended in court of the Moscow district of Minsk on March 10. The court found Russians guilty under Art. 293 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Belarus and sentenced each of them to a fine of 300 basic units (Br10.5 million, or about $3.47 thousand), after which they were released from custody in the courtroom.
However, as stated in the Foreign Ministry of Russia, «accusation of A. Breus and I. Gaponov turned out inconsistent.»
