After Wagner uprising: Lithuania calls for reinforcement of NATO’s eastern flank

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If Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin ends up in exile in Belarus with unclear intentions, security at the eastern border must be increased, the head of state of the Baltic EU and NATO country said on Sunday. “I’m not just talking about Lithuania here, but NATO as a whole,” Nauseda said, according to Lithuanian Radio. Lithuania borders Belarus and the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.

“We are dealing with a large state, a nuclear state, and any internal turmoil inevitably affects the security of surrounding states,” Nauseda said, referring to Russia. So far he has had no information confirming that the Wagner boss is already in Belarus. He announced that in the future Lithuania would use more intelligence capacity to assess the “political and security aspects” of the situation in Belarus.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is in Vilnius this Monday to meet with Nauseda in preparation for the NATO summit on July 11-12 in the Lithuanian capital. One of the main issues is the Russian offensive war against Ukraine. Stoltenberg also wants to look into a Bundeswehr exercise with the Lithuanian army with Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD).

After his failed uprising over the weekend, Prigozhin was allowed to go to Belarus with impunity, the Kremlin said. On Sunday, however, it was still unclear whether Prigozhin was already on his way to the neighboring country, which is closely allied to Russia.

(SDA)

Source: Blick