The EU introduces sanctions against the private military company Gruppo Wagner

2021-12-13T20:15:54.012Z

The European Union has introduced sanctions against the Russian private military company Gruppo Wagner, active in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic, Mozambique and Ukraine. In Libya, restrictions were imposed on Alexander Kuznetsov, who was named in the document as the commander of one of the PMC Wagner units. Due to the actions in Ukraine, the European Union has imposed restrictions on three people: Dmitry Utkin (founder of the PMC, his nom de guerre is Wagner), Denis Kharitonov (deputy of the Astrakhan Regional Duma, mercenary) and Sergei Shcherbakov ( GRU freelance employee and mercenary, according to the European Union publication). In Syria, against two people: Andrei Troshev (identified as Wagner's chief of staff) and Andrei Bogatov (the alleged commander of the 4th Reconnaissance and Assault Company).In the section on sanctions for human rights violations, two other names are mentioned: Stanislav Dychko (mercenary) and Valery Zakharov (National Security Advisor to the President of the Central African Republic). As Novaya Gazeta writes, the former was involved in the murder of Syrian Mohammed Elismail, who was killed by alleged PMC Wagner militiamen in 2017. The Kremlin claims that Russian authorities have nothing to do with the activities of Russian mercenaries in other countries . Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019, answering a question about PMC Wagner's presence in Libya, said that if there are Russians there, they "do not represent the interests of the Russian state" and do not receive money from it. The spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said last July that "de jure "There is no PMC in Russia. In September, Peskov noted that some companies" provide various types of consulting and security services "outside Russia, but this does not contradict Russian law.