Sat 21 January 2023:
The US has designated Russia’s Wagner mercenary group as a “transnational criminal organization,” putting additional pressure on the private army that has recruited tens of thousands of Russian prisoners to fight in Ukraine behalf of Russia.
According to John Kirby, the national security spokesman for the White House, Wagner, which is backed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has roughly 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, with 80% of them coming from the Russian prison system.
Wagner “is a criminal organisation that is committing widespread atrocities and human rights abuses”, Kirby said.
“We will work relentlessly to identify, disrupt, expose and target those who are assisting Wagner,” he said.
Additionally, Kirby displayed images from US intelligence showing North Korea apparently providing weapons to Wagner for his operations in Ukraine and claimed that the private mercenary force had grown to challenge the official Russian military.
According to Kirby, the images from November 18–19 show Russian rail wagons entering North Korea, loading up with infantry rockets and missiles, and then leaving for Russia. According to him, Wagner has been formally designated by the US Treasury as a transnational criminal organization, joining the Italian mafia, Japanese and Russian organized crime, and other transnational criminal organizations.
The designation will make it possible to apply sanctions to more of the group’s extensive global network, which also includes mercenary operations and companies in Africa and other places.
Declaring Wagner a “Transnational Criminal Organization” under US executive order 13581 freezes any US assets of Wagner and prohibits US nationals from providing funds, goods or services to the group.
Kirby added that the US had informed the UN Security Council’s North Korea sanctions committee of its intelligence regarding Wagner’s purchases of North Korean weapons. According to him, the UN Security Council resolutions are being directly violated by the North Korean arms deliveries.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of Wagner, this month denied receiving weapons from North Korea and called the report “gossip and speculation.”
Prigozhin, asked for reaction to Kirby’s comments on Friday, did not directly address the US accusations but said they showed that Wagner and the US were “colleagues” who were both involved in “dismantling criminal clans”, an apparent reference to Russia’s claim that its war is designed to remove what it calls Ukraine’s illegitimate government.
Kirby also said there is evidence that Prigozhin’s confidence in his fighters’ relative success in Ukraine has generated tensions within the Kremlin.
“Wagner is becoming a rival power centre to the Russian military and other Russian ministries,” Kirby said.
“Prigozhin is trying to advance his own interest in Ukraine and Wagner is making military decisions based largely on what they will generate for Prigozhin, in terms of positive publicity.”
The European Union imposed sanctions on Wagner in 2021 and named individuals linked to the group for their involvement “in serious human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings”.
Wagner had been involved “in destabilising activities in some of the countries they operate in, including Libya, Syria, Ukraine (Donbas) and the Central African Republic. The group is also spreading its malign influence elsewhere, notably in the Sahel region,” the EU said.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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