The British government are preparing for a wide “range of scenarios” following the Wagner Group mutiny on Saturday.
The Wagner Group’s rebellion has shown that there are “real cracks” and “weakness of the Russian regime.”
Rishi Sunak said on Monday that it is still “too early” to know if there will be a regime change in Russia after Yevgeny Prigozhin and thousands of his mercenaries “marched” towards Moscow on Saturday.
There has been a bitter feud between Prigozhin and the Russian Defence Minister Sergie Shoigu and the Wagner chief demanded that he be ousted from his position.
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Wagner forces were around 120 miles from Moscow and Prigozhin agreed to return thousands of his battle-hardened fighters back to bases to “avoid” the “risk of blood being spilled” in the Russian capital.
The President’s office in Belarus said that Alexander Lukashenko spoke with Yevgeny
Prigozhin the head of the Wagner Group and c
ame to an agreement.
Sunak said that he agrees with US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s assessment that the mutiny has now exposed “real cracks” in Putin’s authority over Russia.
The British Prime Minister added, “It’s a situation that we’ve been monitoring for some time, in the instability that will be caused by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
Speaking in Nottingham Sunak was asked if he will precipitate a regime change in Russia, he said, “It’s too early to predict with certainty what the consequences of this might be.
“But of course we are prepared, as we always would be, for a range of scenarios.”
NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that repercussions of Prigozhin’s mutiny are being “monitored closely” and said that there within Putin’s regime fragility has now been exposed to the world.
Stoltenberg told reporters in Lithuania, “We see the weakness of the Russian regime and it also demonstrates how difficult and dangerous it is for President Putin to be relying on mercenaries.”
“It is hard to predict what exactly what will happen in the next days and weeks, but we should not make the mistake [of] underestimating the Russians.”
