The group of seven leading industrialised democracies (G7) is watching the situation in Russia closely and discussing it through telephone calls, the European Union’s top envoy and the German Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
“Had a call with G7 foreign ministers to exchange views on the situation in Russia.
“Ahead of Monday’s EU Foreign Affairs Council, I am coordinating inside the European Union and have activated the crisis response centre,” said top European Union diplomat Josep Borrell in a tweet.
“Our support to Ukraine continues unabated.”
The G7 group of leading democracies includes Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the U.S. and Britain.
His comment comes after an escalation of the ongoing power struggle between the Russian defence establishment and Yevgeny Prigozhin, who heads the Wagner mercenary group.
Until now a key Kremlin ally in Moscow’s war on Ukraine, Prigozhin said his troops have taken control of key military sites in southern Russia, in an uprising against the Russian military leadership.
In response, Moscow has declared a state of anti-terrorism emergency and Putin publicly slammed Prigozhin as a “traitor.”
Coming against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine, Western leaders are closely watching the developing unrest in Russia.
“Foreign Minister (Annalena) Baerbock has just consulted with the foreign ministers of the G7 on the situation,” a German Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in Berlin on Saturday afternoon.
The German government is closely observing the developments in Russia, the spokesperson said, adding that the government’s crisis team was currently meeting in the ministry, led by state secretary Andreas Michaelis.
The ministry had already adjusted the travel and security advice for German citizens in Russia this morning, advising citizens to avoid the affected areas and in particular the city of Rostov and its environs.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is being “constantly informed” about developments in Russia as a result of the uprising by the Wagner mercenary force, according to a government spokesman.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said the situation is still unfolding, when asked about the possible consequences of the armed uprising of the mercenary Wagner army in Russia and what this may mean for the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.
“That is difficult to assess, especially since we do not know how unstable Russia will become and who will ultimately have the upper hand and who will join forces with whom,” he said on the sidelines of a party conference of the Lower Saxony Social Democrats.
