(Al Jazeera Media Network) The European Union officials have warned that Russia has become more dangerous following last weekend’s short-lived mutiny by the country’s Wagner mercenary force, which exposed that President Vladimir Putin was politically weaker than previously thought.
Attending an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, senior officials reiterated that the recent chaos in Russia – where the mercenary force came within 200 km of Moscow last Saturday – was an internal matter in which their governments played no role, but a weakened Putin was a concern for Europe.
“A weaker Putin is a greater danger,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said as he arrived for the meeting on Thursday.
“Putin has lost the monopoly of force,” Borrell said, adding that he expected that Putin “will be in cleaning mode internally, and a more assertive mode” following the threat to his power exposed by the mutiny of Wagner fighters.
Borrell said EU member states intelligence services were analysing scenarios as “now we have to look at Russia as a risk because of the internal instability.”