WASHINGTON - The United States on Friday designated Russia’s Wagner group as a “transnational criminal organisation”, piling pressure on the private Russian army fighting in Ukraine.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Wagner, controlled by Mr Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, 80 per cent of them drawn from prisons.
Mr Kirby showed US intelligence photographs of North Korea supplying arms to Wagner for its Ukraine operations, and said the private army has become a rival to the formal Russian military.
The photographs, from Nov 18 to 19, show Russian rail cars entering North Korea, picking up a load of infantry rockets and missiles, and returning to Russia, he said.
He added that the US Treasury was formally designating Wagner as a transnational criminal organisation, putting it in league with Italian mafia groups and Japanese and Russian organised crime.
The designation will allow the wider application of sanctions on the group’s sprawling global network, which includes mercenary operations as well as businesses in Africa and elsewhere.
Wagner “is a criminal organisation that is committing widespread atrocities and human rights abuses”, Mr Kirby said.
“We will work relentlessly to identify, disrupt, expose and target those who are assisting Wagner,” he added.
He also said the US had presented its intelligence on Wagner’s North Korean purchase to the United Nations Security Council’s unit on North Korea sanctions.
The arms transfers from North Korea are in direct violation of Security Council resolutions, Mr Kirby said.
He also said there is evidence that Mr Prigozhin’s confidence in Wagner fighters’ relative success in Ukraine has generated tensions in the Kremlin.
“Wagner is becoming a rival power centre to the Russian military and other Russian ministries,” Mr Kirby said. “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.”
Mr Prigozhin has claimed credit for Russian advances over several months towards the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut, including the capture last week of neighbouring Soledar.
On Thursday, Mr Prigozhin said in a press statement that Russia has “a lot to learn” from Ukraine’s army. But he insisted “the settlement of Artemovsk will be captured”, using the Russian name for Bakhmut.
Wagner was founded in 2014 and has been involved in conflicts in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
Its fighters are tough and disciplined, Mr Prigozhin said, and are brutally punished if they flee the battle.
But his infighting with other officials in the Kremlin could be hurting him.
According to the US Institute for the Study of War, Mr Putin “is increasingly siding with” Mr Prigozhin’s rivals in high-level power circles. Mr Putin has also not directly credited Wagner with the Bakhmut area successes, it noted.
“Putin is likely attempting to reduce Prigozhin’s prominence in favour of the re-emerging professional Russian military and Russian government officials,” the group said on Thursday.
Known as “Putin’s chef” for having catered events for the Russian strongman since both were in St Petersburg in the 1990s, Mr Prigozhin, 61, has been in the US’ sights for years. He was indicted by the US Justice Department in February 2018 for massive interference in the US presidential election two years earlier by the Internet Research Agency and Concord Management and Consulting, two businesses he owns.
He and his companies are also under US and European sanctions for various activities. AFP
