Russia arrests two alleged Belarus coup plotters

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s main security agency says it arrested two Belarusians who it claims were preparing a plot to overthrow Belarus’ government and kill authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The Federal Security Service said the two men have been handed over to Belarus. Russian authorities were alerted to the men’s plans by the Belarusian security service, the KGB. The suspects came to Moscow to meet with opposition-minded Belarusian generals, whom they told that “it was necessary to physically eliminate practically the entire top leadership” of Belarus. One of those arrested was Aleksandr Feduta, Lukahsenko’s spokesman when he was first elected in 1994 but who later joined the opposition. The other, lawyer Yuras Zyankovich, has dual Belarusian-U.S. citizenship.