Fri 15 September 2023:
Several weeks after the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Russian paramilitary Wagner group, the UK has formally designated the group as a terrorist organization.
The ruling, which makes it unlawful to support or be a member of Wagner, was issued on Friday.
Wagner will now be added to a list of 78 other proscribed organisations in the UK, including as Hamas and Boko Haram.
According to statement published on UK government website:
The Russian mercenary organisation, Wagner Group, has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation today (15th September) after an order was laid in Parliament on Wednesday (6th September).
This order comes into force with immediate effect and will make belonging to the Wagner Group or actively supporting the group in the UK a criminal offence, with a potential jail sentence of 14 years which can be handed down alongside or in place of a fine.
Those found guilty of aiding the paramilitary could face steep fines and penalties of up to 14 years in prison.
Proposing the order last week, Home Secretary Suella Braverman called Wagner a “threat to global security”.
“Wagner’s continuing destabilising activities only continue to serve the Kremlin’s political goals,” Braverman said.
“They are terrorists, plain and simple – and this proscription order makes that clear in UK law.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin formed the Wager paramilitary group in 2014, and it swiftly became a vital tool of Russian state power under President Vladimir Putin.
The organization has aided Russia’s allies in Syria, Libya, Mali, and the Central African Republic.
Russia is said to have established dozens of new private military companies, all of which have varying loyalties.
Anton Mardasov, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute’s Syria Program, told the BBC last month that one group, PMC Redut, was already seeking to rival Wagner in Syria.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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