The Times: British move to blacklist Wagner derailed by Russian mutiny

The Times has published an article arguing that Putin's revelations after the insurrection make Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenaries an arm of the Kremlin. Caliber.Az reprints the article.

Britain’s plan to proscribe the Wagner group of mercenaries as a terrorist organisation has been delayed by its mutiny last month and President Putin’s revealing its direct links to the Russian state.

The legal basis for blacklisting the group has been complicated because it was based on the Wagner group acting as an effective paramilitary for Russia.

The dramatic events at the end of June, when Yevgeny Prigozhin turned his forces against Putin over a lack of ammunition for his mercenaries in Ukraine, have changed the legal basis that is needed to formally proscribe an organisation as a terrorist group in the UK.

Prigozhin had ordered his mercenaries to march on Moscow but abruptly called off the attempted coup after he cut a deal with the Kremlin that granted him amnesty for his mutiny.

Further developments in Moscow have complicated Britain’s proscription process further by making Wagner a formal arm of the Russian state.

This month Putin publicly admitted that the Wagner group was fully funded by the Kremlin and had received tens of billions of rubles in public money over the previous year. While it had always been clear that Wagner played a key role for Putin in Ukraine and across Africa, it was technically a private army. Putin also revealed that Wagner mercenaries have been offered the opportunity to sign contracts with Russia’s defence ministry.

Blacklisting Wagner would now amount to proscribing an agency of the Russian government, which would be highly unusual and involve a range of diplomatic and legal complications, according to government sources.

It is understood that Suella Braverman, the home secretary, and Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, are still determined to find a way of proscribing the group.

Proscription would make it a criminal offence to belong to Wagner, attend its meetings, encourage support for it or carry its logo in public, putting it on the same footing as groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

It would also impose financial sanctions, which would be significant because the group and all its members would be barred from using British courts to silence journalists and campaigners. Officials said it would have implications for Wagner’s ability to raise money if any funds went through British financial institutions.

Braverman and Tugendhat are also said to be renewing efforts to proscribe the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which were stalled this year after the Foreign Office raised concerns about keeping communication channels open with the Iranian regime.

The Home Office is thought to have been compiling new evidence of the Revolutionary Guard plotting the assassinations or kidnap of British residents. It had evidence of at least ten incidents last year and in January the regime executed Alireza Akbari, a British-Iranian citizen accused of spying.

In May, The Times revealed that the Home Office was poised to formally proscribe the Wagner group after two months of building a legal case. The group has played a central role in the invasion of Ukraine, and MPs on the foreign affairs committee warned last week that Wagner was “spreading its tentacles deep in Africa”.

A report by the committee accused the government of lacking a strategy to counter Wagner in countries ranging from Sudan to Mozambique and Mali to the Central African Republic. It also has eyes on Niger, where the president was toppled by a military coup last week.

Last week Britain sanctioned 13 people and businesses linked to Wagner activities in Mali, the Central African Republic and Sudan.

Alicia Kearns, chairwoman of the foreign affairs committee, urged the government to go “harder and faster” to sanction Wagner members and questioned why the group still had not been proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

She said: “I still think the government will proscribe the Wagner group. Obviously, they’ve been lobbied by all our partners in Africa who use them not to do so.”