AreaRead the video transcript here
The short-term revolt in Russia reverberates: during the uprising of the Wagner mercenaries at the weekend, the Belarusian army was also put on combat readiness. This is what ruler Alexander Lukashenko said in front of the Belarusian press.
Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus:
"We clearly see a new wave of NATO expansion and an unprecedented expansion of the alliance's military potential in the region, including in the immediate vicinity of our borders. Almost every day, border guards register various provocations at the state border emanating from neighboring countries."
Lukashenko was involved on Saturday as a mediator between the Kremlin and Wagner boss Yewegny Prigozhin, who finally stopped the march of his mercenaries on Moscow. In the West, the advance had initially led to the assumption that Russian fighters would turn against Vladimir Putin.
Meanwhile, the head of the Kremlin addressed the Russian people. In a televised speech on Monday evening, he apparently tried to give the impression that the power and security organs in Russia were capable of acting at all times.
Vladimir Putin, Russian President:
"An armed rebellion would have been crushed in any case. The inept masterminds could not ignore this. They've seen that."
Putin and Lukashenko agree: the common enemy is the West.
Vladimir Putin, Russia's president: "This is exactly the result – fratricide – that the enemies of Russia wanted:
both the neo-Nazis in Kiev and their Western masters and all kinds of traitors. They wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other, for soldiers and civilians to die, and for Russia to lose in the end."
On Saturday night, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin occupied the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and sent some Wagner units to Moscow. Their virtually unhindered advance on the Russian capital, which stopped just over 200 kilometers from Moscow, sent shock waves through the country.
So far, there is no reliable information about the exact whereabouts of the Wagner boss. According to reports, a plane associated with Prigozhin flew from Russia to Belarus on Tuesday morning.