NATO representatives contacted Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as they are worried about the incident on June 24, 2023, related to the rebellion of Yevgeny Prigozhin and PMC Wagner. This was reported by the newspaper La Repubblica.
According to the newspaper, informal contacts took place between the North Atlantic Alliance and the Russian Ministry of Defense, since "Shoigu is considered the most reliable interlocutor." La Repubblica also writes that almost all the leading politicians of the West "except Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni" participated in the talks.

NATO was worried about the possibility that 1,400 nuclear warheads could end up in the hands of Prigozhin and his fighters. During the talks with Shoigu, representatives of the alliance also separately indicated that they had nothing to do with the actions of the rebels, Komsomolskaya Pravda reports.