Russian Wagner mercenary group is classified as a criminal organisation by the US

80 percent of the 50,000 fighters the Wagner Group has in Ukraine are prisoners from Russian jails.

Wagner Mercenaries, a private army that has enlisted tens of thousands of Russian inmates to fight in Ukraine, is now under increased pressure from the United States, which has branded the Wagner Mercenaries as a “transnational criminal organisation.”

According to John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesman, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, supports Wagner, which has about 50,000 militants in Ukraine, with 80% of them coming from the Russian penal system.

Kirby referred to Wagner as “a criminal organisation that is causing widespread atrocities and violations of human rights.”

Wagner’s supporters will be identified, disrupted, publicized, and targeted, he promised.

Additionally, Kirby displayed images from US intelligence showing North Korea allegedly 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 waggons 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 organisation, joining the Italian mafia, Japanese and Russian organised crime, and other transnational criminal organisations.

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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.

Wagner’s US assets have been frozen as a result of executive order 13581’s designation of the group as a “transnational criminal organisation,” and US citizens are no longer permitted to provide money, goods, or services to the organisation.

The organisation claimed on Thursday that Putin was probably trying to lessen the importance of Prigozhin in favour of the newly-emerging professional Russian military and Russian government officials.

The Wagner Group’s activities in the Central African Republic led US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to identify it as an “entity of special concern” last month.

Since 2017, Wagner has been subject to US sanctions. Wagner is now subject to new export restrictions that the Commerce Department published last month in an effort to severely restrict its access to equipment and supplies.

Wagner was sanctioned by the European Union in 2021, along with those associated with the organisation, for their participation in “severe human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions and killings.”

Wagner has engaged in “destabilising actions” in some of the nations they operate in, including Libya, Syria, Ukraine (Donbass), and the Central African Republic. Additionally, the group is expanding its negative influence overseas, particularly in the Sahel region, according to the EU.

RESOURCES: NEWSPAPERS AND AL JAZEERA