Ottawa says it’s monitoring tensions in Russia amid armed rebellion
Canada pledged to keep a close eye on escalating tensions in Russia on Saturday as an armed rebellion threatened to divide the country’s attention and forces amid its ongoing war in Ukraine.
Authorities in Russia are trying to tamp down the rebellion led by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. The millionaire has been outspoken for months in his criticisms against Russia’s military leaders, accusing them of not providing enough munitions in the key battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut.
But these tensions escalated ahead of the weekend, when an accusation Friday by Prigozhin against Russia’s defence minister provoked the country’s top counterterrorism organization to launch a criminal inquiry against the mercenary leader and call for his arrest. It came as Prigozhin led his troops out of Ukraine en route to the Russian capital of Moscow.
As of Saturday, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Prigozhin’s Wagner group appeared to control military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, the southern city more than 1,000 kilometres from Moscow where Russia’s operations in Ukraine are run. Prigozhin also posted video of himself at the military headquarters there and claimed his forces had taken control of the airfield and other military facilities in the city.