The full article titled "The Wagner Group: A terrorist organisation with Russian characteristics" was published in the Summer 2024 (Issue#34) issue of the Line of Defence Magazine (pages 30-35).
Extracts from the article's introduction (full article can be accessed by the link above):
"Private military company (PMC) the Wagner Group is an organisation orchestrated by the Russian foreign military intelligence agency (also known by its Soviet-era abbreviation GRU). The Group has fought on behalf of and acted in the interests of the Russian state since 2014 in Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Mali, and the Central African Republic (CAR), among other countries.
For its crimes, Wagner has been formally designated as a terrorist organisation by Estonia, Lithuania, France, the United Kingdom, and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In the United States, a bill has been introduced to Congress to designate the group a foreign terrorist organisation under the HARM Act 2023 , and the US Treasury has already designated it a transnational criminal organisation.
[...]
Sustained through state patronage and a complex web of international corporate structures, illicit commercial deals and obscure financial flows, and motivated by ruthless strains of Russian nationalism, the Wagner Group has become uniquely equipped to conduct international terrorism at the service of the Russian state with impunity. In doing so it far exceeds the scope of operations of conventional private military and security companies (PMSCs)."
Image source: Global Network on Extremism and Technology
References
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