Even after the end of the uprising by the Wagner mercenary group, intensive consultations on the situation in Russia continued in Berlin. Foreign Minister Baerbock postponed a trip abroad. Official statements on the developments are scarce.
In Berlin there is silence this morning about the latest developments in Russia. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who actually wanted to leave for a multi-day trip to South Africa at noon, postponed the departure by one day in order to discuss the situation in Russia with her foreign office colleagues from the EU in Luxembourg tomorrow.
Chancellor Scholz, who was kept informed about developments all day yesterday, spent 45 minutes on the phone with the French and US Presidents and the British Prime Minister in the afternoon to discuss the joint assessment of the situation and possible Western action.
Putin’s power “massively weakened”
The crisis team of the Federal Foreign Office, in which employees from the Ministry of Defense and the Chancellery are also represented, met all Saturday. In the evening, the Federal Foreign Office then informed the representatives of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees in the Bundestag about the findings available so far. The two committees may hold a special session tomorrow in Berlin.
The chairman of the foreign affairs committee, Michael Roth, said in the ARD, the power of the Russian President has been massively weakened by the Wagner Group uprising. Roth, like Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, acknowledged that all observers were surprised by the events in Russia.