The Russian private military company known as the Wagner Group is slated to be designated as a terrorist organisation by the British government, the Home Office announced on Wednesday. This move will render membership in or support for the group illegal.
A forthcoming parliamentary order will categorise Wagner’s assets as terrorist property, permitting their confiscation, the Home Office stated.
Describing the Wagner Group as “violent and destructive,” Britain’s Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, pointed out that it had “acted as a military tool of Vladimir Putin’s Russia overseas.”
The statement outlined the Wagner Group’s involvement in looting, torture, and “barbarous murders” across Ukraine, the Middle East, and Africa, deeming it a menace to global security.
“They are terrorists, plain and simple – and this proscription order makes that clear in UK law,” Braverman affirmed.
The order is set to become effective on September 13th. At this point, it will be a criminal offence to affiliate with or promote the group, organize or attend its meetings, or publicly display its logo. Violators could face up to 14 years in prison.
David Lammy, the foreign affairs policy chief for the opposition Labour Party, characterised the action as “long overdue” and called on the government to advocate for a Special Tribunal to prosecute President Putin for his “crime of aggression.”
The Wagner mercenary group has operated in various regions, including Syria, Libya, and numerous countries in northern and western Africa. It notably recruited thousands of inmates from Russian prisons to participate in the fighting in Ukraine, serving as the primary assault force during Russia’s winter offensive in 2022–2023.
In June of the current year, the group initiated a brief mutiny within Russia, which President Vladimir Putin denounced as treason. Furthermore, on August 23rd, its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and several top lieutenants perished in a plane crash.
The UK had previously imposed sanctions on Prigozhin in 2020 and the Wagner Group in March 2022. In July of this year, additional sanctions were applied to individuals and businesses connected to the group in the Central African Republic, Mali, and Sudan.
In July, lawmakers on the Foreign Affairs Committee had called for more targeted sanctions against what they described as a “web of entities” affiliated with the Wagner Group.
