The United States is monitoring the activities of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, and Moscow is increasingly using the group to boost its influence in Africa and Europe, according to Politico.
In December, US President Joe Biden’s administration released intelligence indicating that Russia is increasingly relying on Wagner’s group, which in turn is recruiting prisoners and carrying out attacks on Bakhmut. However, US intelligence suggests that the activities of the Wagner Group are not limited to this. The mercenary group owned by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin operates in about a dozen countries and cooperates with their governments for political and military purposes.
Recent US statements underscore the extent to which officials worry about the Kremlin’s reliance on mercenaries and their ability to influence events even in countries with which the US and its allies have diplomatic and commercial relations. In the Central African Republic and Serbia, the influence of Wagner’s group is so great that it poses a threat to local officials and authorities.
Although it is known that the group has been operating in both countries for years, the latest information raises concerns about its growing influence in already politically unstable countries.
Both Prigozhin and Wagner’s group have been on US sanctions lists for years, but at the end of December, the Biden administration approved additional export controls. White House spokesman John Kirby said that because of sanctions and export restrictions, Wagner’s group was looking for partners to supply the necessary equipment for the group’s operations, and that North Korea had made a supply of weapons. The US is considering declaring Wagner’s group a terrorist organization.
The US is concerned about the extent and how the group uses its influence to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign countries while misappropriating natural resources, and points out that the anti-terrorist activities carried out by the Wagner group in many places only worsen the situation and create opportunities for extremism to flourish.
Intelligence has also focused on the group’s activities in Serbia and Belarus. News about the activities of the Wagner Group in Belarus first appeared in 2020.
Members of the group are also stationed in Belgrade, and at the beginning of December 2022, it was officially announced that it would begin its operations in Serbia. Since then, Wagner’s group has been working to combat Russian diaspora activities that allegedly pose a threat to the Putin regime. This coincides with the already irritated situation in the region.
Meanwhile, Russia and Wagner Group are suffering serious losses in Ukraine, especially near Bakhmut. The US Institute for the Study of War said in early January that Warner Group’s main role was to be the living mass that wears down Ukrainian forces, and that the group is likely to be deeply degraded. «Russians have really poured a lot of effort into Bakhmut. It’s largely been a struggle fought by promotion in the Wagner group. It has largely been a battle fought with, quite frankly, convicts. In fact, we believe … that 90 percent of the casualties that he has suffered have been, in fact, convicts,» said representative of the institute.
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