US introduces new sanctions targeting Russia's Wagner mercenary group - CNN

CNN  — 

The US Treasury Department connected Thursday designated the Wagner Group, a Russian backstage mercenary enactment heavily progressive successful the warfare successful Ukraine, arsenic a important transnational transgression organization, and imposed a slew of sanctions connected a transnational web that supports it.

The US Department of State concurrently announced a fig of sanctions meant to “target a scope of Wagner’s cardinal infrastructure – including an aviation steadfast utilized by Wagner, a Wagner propaganda organization, and Wagner beforehand companies,” according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“As Russia’s subject has struggled connected the battlefield, Putin has resorted to relying connected the Wagner Group to proceed his warfare of choice. The Wagner Group has besides meddled and destabilized countries successful Africa, committing wide quality rights abuses and extorting earthy resources from their people,” the Treasury Department said successful a property release.

In summation to the measures targeting the Wagner Group – which were previewed by the White House past week – some agencies announced sanctions against a wide radical of individuals and companies tied to Russia’s warfare successful Ukraine. They are the latest US punitive measures against the Kremlin and its proxies arsenic Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warfare approaches its 2nd twelvemonth with nary signs of abating.

“This enactment supports our extremity to degrade Moscow’s capableness to wage warfare against Ukraine, to beforehand accountability for those liable for Russia’s warfare of aggression and associated abuses, and to spot further unit connected Russia’s defence sector,” Blinken said successful a statement.

The Treasury Department announced sanctions connected a fig of individuals and companies tied to Moscow’s defence concern complex, arsenic good arsenic Putin allies and their household members, and 2 radical progressive with Russia’s attempts to annex parts of Ukraine.

The State Department besides announced sanctions connected “three individuals for their roles arsenic heads of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, which has been reported to facilitate the recruitment of Russian prisoners into the Wagner Group,” a Deputy Prime Minister who besides serves arsenic the Minister of Industry and Trade,” “the Chairman of the Election Commission of the Rostov Region,” a web tied to an already-sanctioned Russian oligarch, and a financier to Putin, according to Blinken.

In addition, the State Department announced it volition instrumentality steps to enforce visa restrictions “on 531 members of the Russian Federation subject for actions that endanger oregon interruption the sovereignty, territorial integrity, oregon governmental independency of Ukraine.”

National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby past week previewed the important transnational transgression enactment designation and forthcoming sanctions against the Wagner group, telling reporters Friday, “These actions admit the transcontinental menace that Wagner poses, including done its ongoing signifier of superior transgression activity.”

Among the companies sanctioned by the Treasury Department for their ties to the Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, are Joint Stock Company Terra Tech, a “Russia-based exertion steadfast that supplies abstraction imagery acquired by commercially progressive satellites, arsenic good arsenic aerial images acquired by unmanned systems,” and a China-based entity “that has provided Terra Tech synthetic aperture radar outer imagery orders implicit locations successful Ukraine.”

“These images were gathered successful bid to alteration Wagner combat operations successful Ukraine,” the Treasury Department said.

In summation to sanctions related to the Wagner Group’s important engagement successful the warfare successful Ukraine, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions for its illicit activities successful the Central African Republic. The radical was re-designated “for being liable for oregon complicit in, oregon having engaged in, the targeting of women, children, oregon immoderate civilians done the committee of acts of violence, oregon abduction, forced displacement, oregon attacks connected schools, hospitals, spiritual sites, oregon locations wherever civilians are seeking refuge, oregon done behaviour that would represent a superior maltreatment oregon usurpation of quality rights oregon a usurpation of planetary humanitarian instrumentality successful narration to the CAR.”