50,000 mercenaries fighting for Kremlin
USA classifies Wagner group as “criminal organization”.
01/20/2023, 8:31 p.m
The Wagner mercenary group supports the Kremlin in international conflicts, including in Ukraine. According to the White House, she should receive missiles from North Korea for this. The United States officially classifies the association as a criminal in order to tighten sanctions.
The USA officially classifies the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which was active in the Ukraine war, as a “transnational criminal organization”. The group is committing “atrocities and human rights abuses,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in Washington. Declaring Wagner a transnational criminal organization would allow for additional sanctions against the mercenary group.
The group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a longtime confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has around 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, according to Kirby. Of these, 40,000 were recruited from prisons. Wagner also received missiles from North Korea in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Kirby showed footage intended to show the armaments being transported from North Korea to Russia by train.
In late September, Prigozhin admitted that he founded the Wagner Group in 2014 to fight in Ukraine. He also acknowledged the mercenaries’ presence in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. For years, the paramilitary group has been suspected of working in secret for the Kremlin at various conflict sites. In October, it opened an official headquarters in St. Petersburg.
Prigozhin’s company cooks for Putin
Moscow has always denied this and denied any connection with paramilitary groups. The Wagner troops themselves made headlines because they recruited more prisoners for the Ukraine war in Russian prison camps. Prigozhin is said to have personally campaigned for recruits in a camp.
Prigozhin is nicknamed “Putin’s chef” because he is said to have met Putin in one of his restaurants. The entrepreneur also gets lucrative contracts from the state for school meals and supply of kindergartens. His catering company Concorde also cooks for the Kremlin. A troll factory in St. Petersburg, which deliberately spreads fake news on the Internet, is also associated with him.