Top Belarusian industrial officials have been arrested on bribe-taking charges.
In a rare announcement, the Belarusian Investigative Committee said that a number of top managers at the state-run Bellegprom light-industry concern and a spinning mill in the western city of Slonim had been arrested on February 24.
No names were disclosed.
The arrests were made a day after Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that the antigovernment unrest that occurred in neighboring Ukraine was not possible in his country.
Lukashenka also said on February 23 that if ordinary Belarusians "catch us stealing, then we deserve a Maidan in Belarus."
The Maidan, which means "square" in Ukrainian, became a rallying symbol for the protests in Kyiv that eventually toppled President Viktor Yanukovych last weekend.
