The Kremlin responded to the British decision of designating the Wagner mercenary group as a terrorist organization by stating that the group does not exist legally. Britain’s interior minister, Suella Braverman, described Wagner as a “violent and destructive” private militia, acting as a “military tool of Vladimir Putin’s Russia overseas” (Reuters).
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the designation, stating, “There’s nothing to comment on. Perhaps one can add only that, legally-speaking, there is no such group” (Reuters).
Wagner, led by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been involved in operations in Syria, Libya, and various African countries. It recruited convicts from Russian prisons to fight in Ukraine, serving as Russia’s main assault force during the attack on the city of Bakhmut (Reuters).
In June of this year, Wagner launched a brief mutiny against the Russian army’s top brass, an action condemned as treason by President Vladimir Putin. On August 23, Prigozhin and his top lieutenants died in a private jet crash under mysterious circumstances (Reuters).
The remnants of Wagner’s Russian fighting force have relocated to Belarus. The fate of the security services it provided to African countries, including Mali and the Central African Republic, remains uncertain (Reuters).
Overall, the Kremlin denies the existence of the Wagner mercenary group, declaring it legally non-existent. The British government’s classification of Wagner as a terrorist organization has been met with dismissal by the Kremlin (Reuters).
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Credit: The Star : News Feed
