WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. has sanctioned two entities in Russia and the Central African Republic for what the Treasury Department on Friday said were efforts to advance Moscow’s “malign activities” in the African nation in part by enabling the Wagner mercenary group.
The Russian and CAR entities targeted sought to benefit financially “from illicit natural resource extraction and provided material and financial support to the Wagner Group and other organizations” tied to Wagner’s former owner Yevgeniy Prigozhin, who died in a 2023 plane explosion in Russia, the U.S. Treasury said.
The action targets CAR-based Bois Rouge SARLU for its ties to Wagner and St. Petersburg-based Broker Expert for its support of Bois Rouge, it said in a statement.
“The United States remains focused on disrupting the networks that enable Russia’s illicit and destabilizing activities in Africa,” Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in the statement.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Ismail Shakil and Susan Heavey; Editing by Eric Beech)
Comments