The US will designate the Wagner group as a “transnational criminal organization”

The United States announced this Friday that it will impose additional sanctions on the private paramilitary group Wagner Groupwhich it will declare a “significant transnational criminal organization” in an effort to hinder its international operations, in response to its “atrocities” in Ukraine.

“In conjunction with this designation, we will also impose additional sanctions next week against Wagner and his support network on multiple continents. These actions recognize the transcontinental threat Wagner poses, including through his continued pattern of serious criminal activity,” the coordinator said. for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, John Kirby.

In a meeting with journalists at the White House, Kirby explained that with the declaration as a “transnational criminal organization”, the US Treasury Department will freeze Wagner’s assets in the northern country and prohibit US citizens from doing any type of business with the paramilitary group.

“Wagner is a criminal organization that is committing widespread atrocities and human rights abuses, and we will work tirelessly to identify, disrupt, expose, and target those who help Wagner,” the senior official insisted as a “message to any company that is considering providing support” to Russian paramilitaries.

Kirby also revealed photographs proving that the Wagner group received a shipment of weapons from North Korea for use in the Russian invasion of Ukrainesomething that Pyongyang had denied and the director of the Wagner Group, Evgueni Prigozhin, dismissed as “rumors”.

The Wagner Group is credited actions of military force developed by Russia in various countries around the world in which the Kremlin or private Russian companies have state interests. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the military company has been an important part of Moscow’s forces in that territory.

internal power struggles

The group, made up of war mercenaries, was created in 2013 by magnate Evgueni Prigozhin, close to President Vladimir Putin. It has been considered that the elite forces of this grouping operate in parallel to the military forces of the Russian government.

The US estimates that Wagner currently has around 50,000 members deployed in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts recruited from Russian prisons.

The US National Security Council’s Strategic Communications Coordinator said Putin’s continued support for the group and his growing influence on Ukrainian soil have increased tension between the Russian Defense Ministry and Prigozhin.

“Wagner is becoming a rival power center for the Russian military and other Russian ministries,” Kirby warned, adding that according to intelligence received, the Russian military has shown “reservations about Wagner’s recruiting methods.” although he indicated that despite this, they believe that the paramilitary group will continue recruiting prisoners.

[Con información de Reuters]

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