The Lithuanian president warned on Sunday that if Belarus welcomes the head of Wagner’s mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, NATO must strengthen its eastern flank.
The head of state, whose Baltic country borders Belarus and Russia and will host the NATO summit next month, was speaking after a meeting of the State Security Council to discuss the Wagner group’s failed uprising against the Kremlin.
After Prigozhin called off his troops’ advance on Saturday, Moscow said Wagner’s boss would leave Russia for Belarus and face no charges.
“If Prigozhin or any part of the Wagner group ends up in Belarus with unclear plans and intentions, it will only mean that we have to further strengthen the security of our eastern borders,” said Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.
“I’m not just talking about Lithuania, but certainly about the whole of NATO,” he said.
Nauseda added that Lithuania will devote more intelligence resources to assessing “Belarusian political and security aspects”.
Lithuania will host the NATO summit next month, and Nauseda said the overall security plan for the meeting needs no changes due to developments in Russia.
The Lithuanian leader said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin could face even greater challenges in the future, adding: “The king is naked.”
The Wagner group insurgency posed the greatest challenge to Putin’s long reign and Russia’s most serious security crisis since he came to power in 1999.
Source: DN
