US hits Russian mercenary group with new sanctions
Mike Brest
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The Biden administration announced a slew of new sanctions levied against the Russian mercenary organization, the Wagner Group, whose soldiers have engaged in a pattern of “serious criminal activity,” in both Ukraine and various African nations.
Last week, the administration announced its intent to designate the Wagner group as a significant transnational criminal organization, which National Security Council coordinator John Kirby described as a way to “open up additional avenues for us to continue to not only sanction Wagner and put more squeeze on their ability to do business around the world, but will assist others in doing the same.”
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Specifically, the U.S. Treasury Department designated the Wagner group as a significant transnational criminal on Thursday, while sanctioning six individuals and 12 entities.
Concurrently, the State Department issued sanctions against five entities and one individual linked to the Wagner Group and its leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin, three individuals for their roles as heads of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, a Deputy Prime Minister who also serves as the Minister of Industry and Trade, the Chairman of the Election Commission of the Rostov Region, Russian Oligarch Vladimir Potanin’s network, a financier to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in addition to imposing visa restrictions on 531 members of the Russian military.
“As sanctions and export controls on Russia from our international coalition continue to bite, the Kremlin is desperately searching for arms and support – including through the brutal Wagner Group – to continue its unjust war against Ukraine,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen. “Today’s expanded sanctions on Wagner, as well as new sanctions on their associates and other companies enabling the Russian military complex, will further impede Putin’s ability to arm and equip his war machine.”
Prigozhin’s troops have largely conducted the Russians’ ongoing assault on the eastern towns of Soledar and its larger city neighbor of Bakhmut where the fighting has been repeatedly described as intense by U.S. officials. His self-promotion of the Wagner Group’s performance has already begun to create “mounting tensions” between Prigozhin and Russia’s Ministry of Defense, Kirby explained.
“Wagner is becoming a rival power center to the Russian military and other Russian ministries. Publicly, Prigozhin and his fighters have criticized Russian generals and defense officials for their performance on the battlefield. 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,” he added.
But their “going pattern of serious criminal activity,” long predates the 11-month war in Ukraine.
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“Wagner personnel have engaged in an ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity, including mass executions, rape, child abductions, and physical abuse in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali,” the treasury department’s readout explains, adding that the new designation came out “for being responsible for or complicit in, or having engaged in, the targeting of women, children, or any civilians through the commission of acts of violence, or abduction, forced displacement, or attacks on schools, hospitals, religious sites, or locations where civilians are seeking refuge, or through conduct that would constitute a serious abuse or violation of human rights or a violation of international humanitarian law in relation to the CAR.”
The Wagner Group extracts natural resources from various African nations to fund its military operations, which Kirby indicated was part of Prigozhin’s desire to capture Soledar and Bakhmut, both of which are salt mining towns.