The United States imposed sanctions against African companies for links with PMC "Wagner"

The list includes two companies from the Central African Republic: gold mining company Midas Resources and diamond trading company Diamville. The WSJ previously wrote that the US postponed PMC-related sanctions due to the events of June 23-24

The US sanctions list associated with Russia's "malicious" activities abroad includes four legal entities and one individual. All of them, according to the US Treasury, are associated with the founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin.

So, the list includes:

CAR-based diamond trading company Diamville; also CAR-based mining company Midas Resources; UAE general trade wholesaler Industrial Resources General Trading; Russian LLC "DM", also engaged in wholesale non-specialized trade.

Andrey Ivanov, born in 1983, also fell under the restrictions. According to the US Department of the Treasury, Ivanov was in the Wagner group and coordinated the activities of PMCs in Mali, and in the spring of this year he contacted "high-ranking Malian government officials on arms deals, mining concerns and other activities of the Wagner group in Mali."

“Organizations in the Central African Republic (CAR), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Russia engaged in illegal gold transactions to finance the Wagner Group to maintain and expand its armed forces, including in Ukraine and Africa,” the press says . -release.

Earlier, the State Department warned about new sanctions against PMCs. “We will announce new measures to bring the Wagner Group to justice in the very near future. We are talking about the current week, ”said Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the department, during a briefing.

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On June 24, The Washington Post, citing sources, wrote that the United States was going to impose sanctions on June 27 against gold mining companies, which, according to Washington, are associated with PMCs, but refused to do so. The reason for this decision was the announcement by Prigogine of a "march of justice".

According to the WSJ, the US administration changed its mind, as they considered that this step would give the impression that the US "took sides" with the Russian leadership. "Washington doesn't want to look like it's taking sides on this," the source said.

On the evening of June 23, Prigozhin accused the Russian Defense Ministry of attacking the Wagner camp, and on the morning of June 24, PMC forces blocked the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don and went to Moscow. The agency denied the businessman's allegations and called them a provocation.

On the evening of the same day, after negotiations with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin announced that the PMC columns would return to the rear camps. The Kremlin reported that the case against him under the article on armed rebellion (Article 279 of the Criminal Code) would be dropped, the Wagnerites would not be prosecuted, and the businessman himself would be able to leave for Belarus.

On June 27, Lukashenka spoke about Prigozhin's arrival in the republic. On the same day, the FSB announced that the case of the rebellion was closed. The Ministry of Defense then announced that PMC Wagner was preparing to transfer heavy military equipment to units of the Russian Armed Forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin invited PMC fighters who did not participate in these events to continue serving in Russia by signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense or another law enforcement agency, to resign or "go to Belarus."

Prigozhin has been under US sanctions since 2016, and PMC Wagner since 2017. In December 2022, Washington tightened export controls on PMCs to limit their access to equipment made using American equipment.

At the beginning of 2023, the US Treasury included this structure in the list of transnational criminal organizations, justifying this by the fact that, in addition to participating in hostilities in Ukraine, the PMC "destabilized the countries of Africa" ​​and "creates a transcontinental threat."