The US has postponed a contemporary spherical of financial sanctions on the Wagner personal army firm after its chief, Evgeny Prigozhin, led a march on Moscow in defiance of the Kremlin, the Wall Avenue Journal reported on Saturday, citing sources.
In response to the newspaper, the US State Division was anticipated to announce sanctions on Wagner-linked gold companies in Africa on Tuesday, together with on a mining operation within the Central African Republic.
Nevertheless, the plan was shelved after Prigozhin accused the Russian army of shelling a Wagner coaching camp on Friday, and led a convoy of his troops towards Moscow the following day, vowing to confront senior Russian army leaders. The riot was defused on Saturday night following talks between Prigozhin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“Washington doesn’t wish to look like taking sides on this,” an nameless supply advised the newspaper. With Putin accusing Prigozhin of treason and vowing “decisive actions” towards the mutineers, the US apparently felt that sanctioning Wagner would assist the Russian chief.
The Wagner Group has been beneath US sanctions since 2017, and was designated an “entity of specific concern” by the State Division in early December for allegedly threatening spiritual freedom in Africa. The group was labeled a restricted “army finish consumer” by the US later that month, and designated a “vital transnational legal group” in January.
Final month, the US sanctioned the pinnacle of Wagner’s operations in Mali.
All through Prigozhin’s standoff with Putin, the US and its allies refused to touch upon the state of affairs or difficulty any public pronouncements or predictions. US President Joe Biden “mentioned the state of affairs in Russia” with the leaders of France, Germany, and the UK, the White Home mentioned in a press release on Saturday.
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