US tightens sanctions against Wagner PMCs US

authoritiestightened EXPORT controls on PMC Wagner to limit the group's access to equipment,made using American equipment

The U.S. Department of Commerce has imposed new sanctions on the private military company (PMC) Wagner in connection with its participation in hostilities in Ukraine, REUTERS reports. The agency tightened export controls on the group.

According to the document, excerpts from which the agency cites, the PMC received the status of "end military user", which makes it impossible to supply it with a number of technologies and goods produced anywhere using American equipment. Reuters does not provide a specific list of goods.

According to the agency, this move is intended to show support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who flew to Washington on Wednesday, December 21, for talks with US President Joe Biden. On that day, the United States announced a new aid package to Ukraine worth almost $2 billion and promised to supply Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems.

PMC Wagner has been under US sanctions since 2017, and its founder, the owner of the Concord company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been under sanctions since 2016.

Prigozhin announced the impossibility of recognizing PMC Wagner as a terrorist Politics

Prigozhin denied involvement in PMCs for a long time and sued because of such accusations. However, in September 2022, he said that he created the organization in 2014, when, according to the businessman, “the genocide of the Russian population of Donbass began,” and “Russia jumped on the last steam locomotive and managed to block the arrival of the Ukrainian army in Crimea.” According to Prigozhin, the PMC "in all its actions sacredly defends the interests of RUSSIA, while observing all moral norms."

In early autumn, the VChK-OGPU TELEGRAM channel published a video showing a man resembling Prigozhin recruiting prisoners to be sent to Ukraine to participate in a military operation. Concorde said the video's protagonist actually "looks horribly" like a businessman. Members of the Human Rights Council under the President of Russia called on the Prosecutor General's Office to explain what was happening, emphasizing that convicts can be released ahead of schedule only in the event of an amnesty, pardon or parole. Prigozhin replied: “Whoever doesn’t like this topic, send your children to the front. Either PMCs and prisoners, or your children - decide for yourself. The Kremlin believes that Prigozhin "sick with his soul for what is happening" and also "makes a great contribution."

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In December 2021, the European Union imposed sanctions against PMCs, stating that the group is guilty of human rights violations in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan and Mozambique.