UK imposes sanctions against eight individuals linked to Wagner

M-Invest, which is allegedly engaged in gold mining in Sudan, the Sudanese Maroe Gold and Al-Solag Mining Company, as well as Lobaye Invest Sarlu and Sewa Security, operating in the Central African Republic, fell under sanctions for “links with PMC Wagner ” .

The UK Treasury has included in the sanctions lists for Mali, the Central African Republic and Sudan eight individuals and five legal entities associated, according to London, with Wagner PMC.

Thus, Ivan Maslov, born in 1980, who, according to London, is the HEAD of Wagner PMC in Mali, was included in the sanctions list.

In addition, sanctions were imposed on Vitaly Perfiliev, the CAR president's security adviser, who "heads the group's activities in this country."

The sanctions list for Sudan included Mikhail Potepkin, who "because of his connection with the Wagner group and the leadership of Meroe Gold and M-Invest, is responsible for actions that threaten security and stability in the country," says the British Treasury .

The UK also introduced restrictive measures against Konstantin Pikalov, Andrey Mandel, Mikhail and Alexander Maloletko, Alexander Ivanov, as well as Belarusian citizen Dmitry Sytoy.

Among the legal entities under sanctions were M-Invest, Meroe Gold, Lobaye Invest SARLU, Sewa Security Services, Alsolag Mining Co Ltd., which London considers to be associated with Wagner PMC.

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In the Central African Republic, under the control of PMCs, there were deposits of diamonds and gold. Logistics and settlements with it were carried out through two companies - Officer's Union for International Security and Sewa Security Services, which previously fell under US sanctions .

In early July, the press secretary of the President of the Central African Republic, Albert Yaloke Mokpem, announced that the country was rotating units of the Wagner PMC. He stressed that we are not talking about their "final departure".

According to the Financial Times (FT) newspaper, as of February 2023, there were about 1.5 thousand Wagner PMC fighters in the CAR. REUTERS claims that the number of PMC fighters in the country reached 1.9 thousand.

Malik Aggar, Deputy Chairman of the Transitional Sovereign Council of Sudan, denied the presence of Wagner PMC in the country at the end of June. Representatives of PMCs are located only in countries neighboring Sudan, he said.

“Some say that the Wagner forces have to some extent links with the Rapid Reaction Force (RSF), but there is no confirmation of this,” he added. In April, the founder of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that not a single fighter of his group had been in Sudan for more than two years. In May 2023, the US Treasury , while imposing sanctions on Prigozhin's companies operating in Mali, reported that the PMC was supplying RSF anti-aircraft missiles.