“The Kremlin regime reaps what it sows”

The EU and NATO look forward to extreme caution the first hours of the rebellion of the Russian mercenary group Wagner against the regime of Vladimir Putin. An uprising that (despite the increasingly frequent outbursts of its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin) It was not among the central Allied scenes, at least in this phase of the war in the Ukraine.

“This is clearly an internal Russian matter.“, has written on his Twitter account the President of the European Council, Charles-Michel. “This is an internal Russian matter,” agrees, almost word for word, the spokesman for the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. “We remain focused on supporting Ukraine“, highlight the spokesmen for the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

EU leaders are in permanent contact with all European capitals and with the G-7 partners, following up to the minute what is happening in Moscow. For his part, NATO limits itself to pointing out that it is “monitoring the situation” in Russia, without adding further comments. Neither at the headquarters of the Atlantic Alliance nor at the EU headquarters in Brussels have extraordinary meetings been scheduled for the weekend.

[Putin anuncia una respuesta “dura” contra los “traidores” amotinados del Grupo Wagner]

The EU foreign ministers, under the leadership of Josep Borrell, will address the crisis during their monthly meeting that was already scheduled for Monday in Luxembourg. “Ahead of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Monday, I am coordinating within the European Union and I have activated the crisis response center. Our support for Ukraine remains unchanged,” assures Borrell. ANDNATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenbergis scheduled to speak on Monday in Lithuania, which he is visiting to prepare for the July summit.

In European capitals, the emphasis on reaction depends on the degree of proximity to the conflict. Poland and the Baltics have announced a reinforcement of border security fearing an avalanche of Russian refugees. “I can assure you that there is no direct threat to our country. Border security has been tightened. I also urge our citizens not to travel anywhere in Russia,” said the Prime Minister of Estonia, kaja kallas.

“For 100 years, Lithuanians have lived on the border of the brutal moscow banditocracy, knowing that it is only a matter of time before the next chaotic implosion. We are not distracted. We see clearly through the chaos. The goal, as always, is victory and justice for Ukraine. The moment is now”, writes the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis.

“The Kremlin regime reaps what it sows. All the violence directed against Ukraine has failed,” says the Lithuanian president, Nauseda Gypsy. Nauseda says that the Vilnius NATO summit must assess the new circumstances: “The complex security situation demands additional measures. We must prepare for any scenario.”

“Border security has been strengthened and, due to current events, no visas or border entry will be considered for Russians leaving Russia. There is no direct threat to Latvia at the moment,” the country’s President Edgars Rinkevics announced.

The Scandinavian countries are the ones that so far show the greatest concern about what is happening in Russia. “The government is closely monitoring events in Russia, the situation is serious“, said the foreign minister of Sweden, Tobias Billström, whose country holds the current presidency of the EU. “The situation is serious and there is a lot of unconfirmed information. Deep conflicts between armed forces,” says the new Finnish Prime Minister, Petteri Orpo.

For his part, the Italian Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, assures that he is in permanent contact with his embassy in Moscow. “At the moment there is no problem for compatriots in Russiawho have been advised to be cautious,” writes Tajani on Twitter, in a message accompanied by the emergency number of the crisis unit.

The EU has already included the Wagner Group and its top leadership (including Prigozhin) in its sanctions blacklist even before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. The first restrictive measures against this “private military entity without defined legal form based in Russia”, as it is defined in Brussels, date from December 2021.

“The Wagner Group has recruited, trained and dispatched private military agents to conflict zones around the world to fuel violence, loot natural resources and intimidate civilians in violation of international law, in particular international human rights law,” indicates the text of the sanctions.

Wagner’s components are implicated in “gross violations of human rightssuch as torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, or in destabilizing activities in some of the countries where they operate, including Libya, Syria, Ukraine and the Central African Republic.”

“The Group is also extending its pernicious influence elsewhere, especially in the Sahel region. For these reasons, the group constitutes a threat to the population of the countries in which it is present, the region in general and the European Union,” the document states.

Own Prigozhin, whom Brussels considers to be the financier of the Wagner Group, It has been on the EU blacklist since October 2020 for contributing to the destabilization of Libya. The Russian businessman appealed the sanction before the General Court of the EU (TGUE), but the European justice dismissed all his arguments. Instead, he did lift the restrictive measures against his mother on the grounds that they had been imposed based solely on kinship grounds.

In February and April of this yearthe EU approved new batches of sanctions against the Prigozhin mercenary gang “given the international dimension and seriousness of the group’s activities, as well as its destabilizing effect on the countries in which it operates”.

In this second package it is emphasized that “andthe Wagner Group led attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Soledar and Bakhmut in January 2023 and is actively participating in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Therefore, the Wagner Group is responsible for materially supporting actions that undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”

“Endanger international peace and securitysince its operations are carried out outside any legal framework”, denounced Josep Borrell.