The Council of the EU decided on Monday 13 December to sanction the Wagner Group, “a Russia-based unincorporated private military entity”.
“The Wagner Group is responsible for serious human rights abuses in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan and Mozambique, which include torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings”, says the EU Council decision, published on 13 December in the EU’s Official Journal.
“The activities of this group reflect Russia’s hybrid warfare, pose a threat and create destabilisation in many countries around the world”, said the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.
In addition to the group, the EU is sanctioning three companies and eight individuals linked to Wagner under several sanction regimes: Syria, Libya, actions undermining the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and in response to serious human rights violations. Their assets are frozen and the individuals are subject to a visa ban.
The companies subject to measures are two private Russian companies active in the oil and gas sector in Syria: Valada LLC and Mercury LLC, and Evro Polis LLC, a private Russian company linked to the Wagner Group in Syria, active in the mining, oil and gas sectors in Syria.
Two Wagner executives are also sanctioned - Dmitry Utkin, the group’s Founder and Commander, and Andrey Troshev, a founding member and Executive Director - as is the Security counsellor to the CAR president, Valery Zakharov.
According to the EU Council, those sanctioned are involved in serious human rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary, executions and killings, or in destabilising activities in some of the countries where they operate.
See the legislative acts: https://bit.ly/3s9ASvg (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)