Valery Tsepkalo, who sought to challenge Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in election, told Sputnik he would not go to Russia after Belarus issued a wanted persons notice for him
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th August, 2020) Valery Tsepkalo, who sought to challenge Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in election, told Sputnik he would not go to Russia after Belarus issued a wanted persons notice for him.
Earlier in the day, it became known that an entry in the Russian Interior Ministry's database on Tsepkalo read "wanted on criminal charges."
"I am in Ukraine right now. I am certainly not going to Russia now that I have been added to its database of wanted criminals," Tsepkalo said in an interview.
The ex-diplomat suggested that Russia had listed him as a wanted fugitive "automatically" after Belarus put him on an international wanted list. He is accused of taking a bribe in 2012.
"I think this happened automatically. Belarus and Russia share the database and when Belarusians made an entry on me it appeared in Russia['s registry]," Tsepkalo suggested.
