BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th June, 2023) German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has postponed her visit to South Africa for a later date, thus shortening it by one day, due to recent events in Russia, German media reported on Sunday.
"The minister had postponed her planned departure for South Africa by one day in order to attend a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday morning in view of the latest developments in Russia," German Foreign Ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying by German news agency dpa.
Baerbock now plans to fly to South Africa on Monday afternoon, so the meetings previously scheduled for Monday in Cape Town are canceled, media reported.
On Tuesday, the minister plans to chair a meeting of the biannual German-South African Binational Commission in South Africa's Pretoria, together with South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, media reported.
On Friday, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a criminal case for inciting armed mutiny over statements made on behalf of the head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin. The FSB said that there was a threat of escalation on Russian territory. The Russian Defense Ministry said that social media reports of alleged Russian military strikes on PMC Wagner camps were not true.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a televised address to the nation on Saturday in which he described the actions of the Wagner Group PMC as an armed mutiny and treason, and promised harsh measures against the insurgents.
Later in the day, the Belarusian presidential office said that Prigozhin had accepted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's proposal to stop the movement of Wagner troops in Russia and to take further steps to de-escalate the situation. Prigozhin later confirmed the information, saying that the Wagner troops were returning to their field camps.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Saturday evening that the criminal case against Prigozhin had been dropped and that he would leave for Belarus under guarantees given by Putin.
