EU sanctions against Wagner: Russia denounces Western "hysteria"
A mercenary from the Wagner group pictured in the Central African Republic (CAR).
© Franceinfo
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Twenty-four hours of silence, then an official reaction from Russian diplomacy to European sanctions against the paramilitary group Wagner and three other companies linked to it.
Moscow denounced this Tuesday, December 14, in a statement from the Foreign Ministry, the decisions taken the day before by the EU, accusing Westerners of "hysteria" on this subject.
An evolution of the discourse on this question.
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With our correspondent in Moscow,
Anissa El Jabri
For a long time, the Kremlin and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not react to questions and challenges about the Wagner group.
One and only answer: paramilitary companies are prohibited by the Russian Criminal Code.
In recent months, the tone has changed: the authorities have recognized their existence, but are content to present them as independent and free actors.
And too bad if their geographical presence coincides with the strategic and economic interests of Russia.
►Read again: Brussels sanctions the Russian group Wagner for its “destabilization actions”
With the announcement of European sanctions, Moscow this time denounces "
the hysteria
" which has spread in the West around this theme and which "
testifies above all to the jealousy of certain former European metropolises towards the States of Africa and the Middle East
”, whose
sovereignty and independence
they were“
forced to recognize in their time
”.
The Russian press is getting more precise.
According to the daily
Nezavissimaïa Gazeta on
Tuesday, for example, Mali is becoming "
the central point of the confrontation in Africa between Russia and France
".
For the daily, "
the EU does not take into account the opinion of the UN
".
Russia systematically blocks any initiative on paramilitary groups there.
►Also listen:
Can the EU really block the road to the private paramilitary company Wagner?
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