BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday the failed mutiny in Russia last weekend had weakened President Vladimir Putin but it was unclear if it would make the Kremlin any more likely to withdraw its troops from Ukraine to allow for peace talks.
“I do believe he is weakened as this shows that the autocratic power structures have cracks in them and he is not as firmly in the saddle as he always asserts,” Scholz said in an hour-long interview with German broadcaster ARD.
Asked about the impact of the failed mutiny on the Ukraine war, the German chancellor said the pre-condition for successful peace talks was Russia accepting it needed to withdraw its troops from the country.
“Whether this has become easier or harder through these events is not really clear,” he said in the interview recorded on Wednesday afternoon for airing later in the evening.
Scholz said he did not want to participate in speculation about how long Putin would likely remain in office, saying the West’s aim in supporting Ukraine was to help it defend itself, not to bring about regime change.
Asked if at any point on Saturday he had hoped the insurrection of mercenary Wagner troops was the end of Putin’s rule, he said it would have made no sense as it was unclear if what would come after him would be better.
“The Wagner troops are a military unit that is acting very aggressively all over the world, and very concretely also in Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke, editing by Emma-Victoria Farr and Chizu Nomiyama)
