Today, the United States officially designated the Russian private military company Wagner as an international criminal organization and froze its assets in the United States for helping the Russian military in the war in Ukraine.

The White House said last month that Wagner received a shipment of weapons from North Korea. to support Russian forces in Ukraine as a sign of the group’s growing role in the conflict.

The US government has also placed a number of individuals and entities under sanctions for their ties to the Wagner Company, which it accuses not only of involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but also of involvement in crimes it has committed in other countries.

“Wagner associates are involved in ongoing criminal activity, including mass executions, rape, kidnapping and extradition of children in the Central African Republic and Mali,” the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

“Today’s sanctions against the Wagner group, as well as new sanctions against their partners and other companies supporting the Russian war machine, will further prevent Putin from arming it,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

Sanctions against individuals and companies

Simultaneously with the imposition of sanctions against Wagner, the US Department of the Treasury added the names of 19 Russians to the sanctions list, including Deputy Prime Minister Denis Madurov, Governor of Tatarstan Rustam Minikhanov and his wife Gulsina Minikhanova, Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) Arkady Gostev, Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service for Rostov Dmitry Bezrukiy, Head of the Administration of the State Council President Alexander Kharichev, and Sergey Antoniev, founder of the Skarlet telecommunications company under the Yota trademark.