Transnational Criminal Organization — How Is the Russian Wagner Militia Affected by US Sanctions?

a year ago

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In a move to deter its rising power in Ukraine, the United States announced, on January 20, 2023, that it designated Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization; the White House said the US will impose fresh sanctions on the group and its support network next week.

Observers believe that the Russian Wagner Group, described as Putin’s army, has become the headline of the brutality of the ongoing battles in Ukraine.

 

Criminal Organization

Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the US National Security Council John Kirby confirmed that Wagner is a criminal organization that still commits atrocities and human rights violations on a large scale.

There were now some 50,000 Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine, and approximately 80% of the Wagner troops deployed to Ukraine were drawn from prisons, according to Kirby.

BBC said, “the new designation will allow the US government to apply wider sanctions against the paramilitary group, which has also operated in Syria, Libya, and the Central African Republic, among other hotspots.”

John Kirby added that the group has become a rival to Russia’s regular military forces and that the US believes are “mounting tensions” between Russian officials and Wagner’s controversial founder, businessman, and Vladimir Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.

He pointed out that even the Russian Ministry of Defense has “reservations about the recruitment methods adopted by the Wagner Group.”

It is noteworthy that Kirby presented during the press conference US intelligence photographs showing Russian rail cars entering North Korea, where they allegedly picked up infantry rockets and missiles for later use by Wagner forces.

The photos were taken on November 19, 2022, and America transferred them to the UN Security Council as part of the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang, according to Kirby.

Washington reports that the group’s influence is growing, and it has become a competitor to the regular Russian forces; Kirby said: “We will work relentlessly to identify, disrupt, expose and target those who are assisting Wagner.”

In the midst of the fiercest battles between Ukraine and Russia, Commander Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin, also known as Putin’s Chef, announced on January 11, 2023, that his fighters had taken control of the strategic town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine.

At that time, Prigozhin, 61, showed the strength of his fighters, saying that no units other than Wagner fighters participated in the liberation of the city of Soledar, referring to the absence of Russian ground forces.

Kirby said the group has become a rival to Russia’s regular military forces and that the US believes are “mounting tensions” between Russian officials and Wagner’s controversial founder, businessman, and Vladimir Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.

At the same time, the spokesman revealed that Prigozhin was “promoting his own interests in Ukraine.”

The White House has previously reported that in certain cases, Russian military officials were subordinate to Wagner’s command in the battles in Ukraine.

The United States estimates that Wagner spends about $100 million a month on the war.

Since its founding in 2014, Wagner has remained a very mysterious entity through which Russia moves its flocks of mercenaries to serve its interests on the battlefields.

This is whether in sub-Saharan Africa or in Libya and Syria, and now in the hot fighting axes in Ukraine.

After years of severe denials, on September 26, 2022, Yevgeny Prigozhin acknowledged, in a post on social media, that he had founded the Wagner Group in May 2014 to fight in Ukraine, including fighters from Africa, Syria, and Latin America.

Prigozhin describes Wagner as a completely independent force with its own planes, tanks, missiles, and artillery.

 

Separation and Disconnection

Washington’s new step towards the Wagner Group was preceded by the US Department of Commerce’s decision to designate the group as a Russian military end user.

Thus, the United States will guarantee that Wagner will not be able to access equipment anywhere in the world based on American technology or production equipment, according to Kirby.

This procedure against Wagner will allow the CIA to pursue those who help Wagner in various fields, especially since this classification puts it in the same category as Italian mafia groups and Japanese and Russian organized crime.

This designation will allow wider application of sanctions to Wagner’s sprawling global network, which includes mercenary operations as well as the companies in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

The designation would enable the freezing of any assets of the Wagner Group in the United States and prevent Americans from providing any funds, goods, or services to the Russian “militia.”

There are those who see the classification ineffective, especially since it has already been proposed in the US Congress to consider all of Russia as a “terrorist state,” and therefore it will not change the course of military performance on Ukrainian soil.

However, it is certain, according to experts, that the new classification will enable the US government to apply broader sanctions to this paramilitary group, in a process similar to “cutting the claws abroad.”

Wagner relies on its financial strength to bring in more mercenaries and force them into the battles of Ukraine, and therefore cutting off its external sources of funding may weaken those recruitment operations and reduce their numbers.

International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson believes that classifying Wagner as a criminal organization will make it difficult for the group to do business around the world, as it has become an extension of the Russian state by expanding influence and making money from Africa to the Middle East.”

He added, according to CNN, on January 21, 2023, cutting off funds for the Wagner Group weakens Putin.

He explained that the West attributes the progress of the Russian forces in the Ukrainian Donbas region to the Wagner mercenary force on the ground, to a greater extent than the regular army, as the White House admitted.

He pointed out that Wagner’s receipt of weapons from North Korea was the biggest motive for classifying Wagner as a transcontinental international criminal organization.

 

A Growing Power

Hence, the American message to urge countries not to deal with Wagner, which is expanding in Africa, Libya, and Syria, has become clear.

For example, in Syria, Wagner is active in recruiting Syrian mercenaries to fight abroad.

The Wall Street Journal had quoted Western security officials in August 2022, saying Wagner had sent geologists to explore minerals in Mali, noting that it had displaced the population from the areas rich in minerals.

Wagner also played a role in Central Africa to support President Faustin-Archange Touadera against the rebels in exchange for access to areas of diamonds, gold, and uranium, and the same thing was repeated in Sudan, according to Western reports.

John Prendergast, a co-founder of The Sentry organization concerned with war crimes, has previously confirmed that machines for plundering and killing serve the interests of Putin and his external allies, especially Wagner.

He made it clear, on June 17, 2021, that from within the Kremlin, Prigozhin had built good relations with the Russian elite.

Prigozhin owns the Evro Polis OOO company, which operates in the Coal Mining industry, and among its clients is the Russian army.

He also founded an extensive catering company called Concord which now operates effectively as the parent company of the Wagner Group.

Currently, Prigozhin’s strongest relationship with Putin is through Concord, where the company and its affiliates have received government contracts worth more than $3 billion, including the supply of food for Moscow schools.

Despite this, many of Prigozhin’s companies are currently subject to US sanctions because of what Washington describes as his malign political and economic influence around the world.