- MPs Urge Swift Action Against Russian Mercenary Group Wagner.
- Report Calls UK Government’s Sanctions “Extremely Inadequate.”
- Wagner’s Expanding Influence in Africa Raises Concerns, Calls for Action.
MPs assert that the government has been slow to take measures to counteract the expanding influence of the Russian mercenary organization, which has significant operations in Africa and was recently active in the Ukraine conflict.
According to a new report, the UK government’s sanctions against Wagner have been “extremely inadequate,” and the government should move more quickly to exploit the mercenary group’s current vulnerability.
MPs on the foreign affairs committee assert that ministers lost focus over the past decade as Wagner’s influence grew in Syria, Ukraine, and Africa, and have urged the government to label Wagner a terrorist organization.
The committee’s report, titled “Guns for Gold: the Wagner Network Exposed,” details the nefarious, destabilizing nature of Wagner, particularly in Africa, where the organization makes the majority of its money and highlights what it describes as government complacency in failing to recognize and act in a coordinated manner to mitigate the risk that Wagner, a slippery Russian proxy, represents.
The United Kingdom sanctioned an additional thirteen individuals and entities associated with Wagner’s operations in Africa last week, bringing it more in line with U.S. and European Union sanctions regimes.
The report criticized the United Kingdom’s efforts to sanction individuals and entities associated with Wagner’s vast network, stating that they lagged behind those of the European Union and the United States and arguing that the government is not equipped to track Wagner’s activity as it evolves in the wake of Evgeny Prigozhin’s coup.
The report states that the United Kingdom’s efforts to sanction individuals and entities associated with Wagner’s extensive network have lagged behind those of the European Union and the United States and that it lacks the resources to monitor Wagner’s activity as it transforms in the wake of Evgeny Prigozhin’s coup.
Wagner-affiliated entities may still have access to UK financial markets, according to the report, and the government’s ability to protect the international order and UK interests as the network expands has been hindered by its tendency to view the group through the lens of Ukraine.
Wagner has rapidly spread its tentacles across the African continent, offering a variety of services including counter-insurgency operations, security assistance, military training, and political influence campaigns in exchange for mineral concessions that bolster Russia’s heavily sanctioned state coffers.
The Kremlin appears to have realized that it cannot afford, from a foreign policy standpoint, to dismantle the group’s network in countries such as the Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan, and Libya, despite Prigozhin’s erratic behavior.
This may explain why Wagner forces are focusing on Africa instead than Ukraine, allowing Evgeny Prigozhin to relax in Belarus.
In the meantime, African nations continue to rely significantly on the Wagner model to support fragile and unstable regimes.
“Capture of a State” in Africa
The Central African Republic (CAR) has just announced that Wagner will provide security for the referendum on Sunday, which seeks to amend the constitution to allow President Touadera to run for a third term (echoes of Vladimir Putin).
The report characterizes the Central African Republic’s reliance on Wagner as an example of state capture’ and a warning of what may occur elsewhere in light of the country’s ongoing instability.
According to the report, the United Kingdom should make it clear to countries seeking to engage with malign PMCs like Wagner that the costs of instability, corruption, and a propensity for extreme violence surpass any perceived benefits and that cooperation may have financial and diplomatic repercussions.
Russia, along with China, has expanded its influence in Africa as the United Kingdom has been preoccupied with domestic security concerns.
Wagner and others have pushed France out of the Central African Republic and Mali, which are unstable. The United Kingdom’s stabilization efforts in Libya resemble a policy from the past.
Despite the obvious priority accorded to Ukraine as it fights Russia’s inexcusable invasion, this report contends that the United Kingdom must step up its game if it is to remain on top of the significant threat Wagner continues to pose to UK security interests worldwide.
