2023-06-24 18:52:41
Newspaper quotes Wall Street JournalWell-informed people said, on Saturday, that the United States is determined to postpone new sanctions that it would have imposed on the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group, after it launched a rebellion against Moscow.
The same sources said that Washington fears that the new sanctions package against Wagner will indirectly help President Vladimir Putin.
“Washington doesn’t want to appear to be taking sides in what is going on,” said a person familiar with the delay.
And the same sources revealed that the US State Department was planning to announce new sanctions against Wagner, on Tuesday, for its illegal trade in gold in Africa, including the mining operations that the group established in the Central African Republic.
Wagner, led by former “Putin’s chef” Yevgeny Prigozhin, has a foothold in Libya, Mali and Sudan, offering military assistance in exchange for access to natural resources.
Unlike its competitors, Wagner developed its own revenue stream outside of Russian state support.
Washington has already sanctioned the group for its role in disinformation campaigns, including during the 2016 US presidential election, as well as for its involvement in the war in Ukraine.
“Washington has a strategy in place to target, isolate and weaken Wagner’s growth in Africa,” said Cameron Hudson, former chief of staff to the US special envoy to Sudan.
He then continued, “But continuing with this approach now is likely to put Washington in the difficult position of helping Putin.”
The US State Department and the Treasury Department did not respond to requests for comment from the newspaper.
And after leading a rebellion since Friday, against the military leaders in Russia, and seizing at least two cities, Prigozhin ordered his soldiers to return, claiming that his decision was “our right to bloodshed.”
It is noteworthy that the United States imposed several sanctions on Wagner and its commander, claiming that the Russian private military group is using its resources in several African countries to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
And last May, the US Treasury Department suggested that Wagner was using forged documents to hide purchases of mines, drones, radars, and anti-missile battery systems, and then transferring them for use in Ukraine.
And before that, last January, Washington classified the Wagner Group as an “international criminal organization”, denouncing its abuses in Ukraine and its use of weapons provided by North Korea and its recruitment of prisoners.
The Wagner Group was formed in 2014 and has recruited thousands of prisoners to fight in Ukraine in exchange for a promise to reduce their sentences.
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