British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday that his country was prepared for the scenario of a sudden collapse of Russia after media reports that contingency plans were being prepared in London.

Sunak’s comments came after reporters at The Times, a newspaper close to the ruling Conservative Party, reported that internal assessments by the London-based executive concluded that plans were needed to destabilize Russia after the military uprising that erupted on Friday night. Evgeny Prigozhin. , head of Wagner’s mercenaries.

“We have to wait and see what happens next. This may just be the ‘first chapter’ of something new,” a government source told The Times.

The former British military attaché in Moscow, John Forman, in turn said that if Prigozhin succeeded in taking power in Moscow, it would be the “worst case scenario” and that the West should have no illusions about him.

“He’s a fascist,” Foreman said of Chief Wagner.

Foreman also said that the speed with which they assessed the situation in Russia between Friday night and Saturday night, when Prigozhin announced that he had ordered an end to the rebellion, surprised Western diplomats.

“We thought it would all happen gradually,” he said.

Sunak says his government was mindful of tensions between Putin and mercenary leader Wagner

Former British ambassador to Russia Roderick Lyne expressed the opinion that after the mutiny, Putin’s chances of remaining the leader of Russia for life are already less, but “he is still in office now.”

Asked on Monday afternoon about The Times’ report, Rishi Sunak said Britain was prepared for a range of scenarios regarding Russia and that London was closely monitoring what was happening in Russia.

“It’s too early to predict for sure what the consequences of this (non-Prygozhin uprising) will be, but of course we are prepared, as always, for a number of scenarios,” Sunak told British journalists.

“This is a situation that we have been analyzing and monitoring for some time, as we are aware of the destabilizing potential of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine, the tension between the Wagner group and the Putin regime,” he added.

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