US Department of State and the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control declared the Russian PMC “Wagner” a transnational criminal organization on January 26, 2023, which provides for the introduction of additional sanctions.
Source: US Department of State
“Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating the Wagner Group as a significant transnational criminal organization pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13581, as amended by E.O. 13863. The Wagner Group’s pattern of serious criminal behavior includes violent harassment of journalists, aid workers, and members of minority groups and harassment, obstruction, and intimidation of UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR), as well as rape and killings in Mali,” noted the US Department of State.
In addition, the “Wagner” private military company was found responsible for complicity or participation in attacks on women, children, and other civilians by committing acts of violence, abduction, and forced displacement. The militants of the Russian group also attacked schools, hospitals, religious institutions and places of refuge, in particular in the CAR.
In addition, the Wagner Group participates in hostilities, in particular, in the east of Ukraine since 2014 and during the full-scale war against Ukraine on the side of Russia.
