Belarussian authorities have detained a courier who tried to smuggle $200,000 for local opposition leaders over the country’s border, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said Friday, Interfax reported.
Lukashenko gave no details of the incident but said the money for the opposition was coming from Russia by means of Lithuania, Poland and Germany, which he said acted as proxies to make cash transfers untraceable to Moscow.
Lukashenko, whose relationship with the Kremlin has soured in recent months, also reiterated his earlier statements that Russian authorities try to depose him by supporting his opponents, the report said.
The incumbent president, who faces a re-election he is expected to win in December, said the number of opposition supporters in Belarus, which has a population of 9.5 million, is limited to 100,000 to 150,000 voters.
(MT)