Belarus investigates some 20 analysts over ‘harming national security’

Authorities in Belarus, Russia’s closest ally, launched an investigation on Thursday into a group of 20 independent analysts and commentators now outside the country and accused of conspiring to seize power and promote extremism.
The investigation follows a series of searches and detentions of people, many of who were once jailed for political dissent against Belarus’s long-serving president Alexander Lukashenko.
One human rights group said more than 150 people were affected by the police action.
The United States, which has long imposed sanctions on Belarus alongside the European Union, denounced the latest punitive measures.
Belarus’s Investigative Committee said the analysts “took an active part in the development and implementation of the concept of destructive activities aimed at harming national security”.