
UK to declare Wagner Group a terrorist organisation
Russian mercenary group Wagner will be declared a terrorist organisation and a draft order against the private militia will be laid in parliament on Wednesday, the Home Office said. Once cleared, the order will make it illegal to be a member of the group or to support it. The group, formerly led by now-dead Yevgeny Prigozhin, is known to carry out Russia’s dirty work in Syria and Africa, and has also handed Vladimir Putin Russia’s biggest victory of capturing Bakhmut against Ukraine in the continuing invasion. Assets belonging to Wagner, primarily consisting of contractors and prison convicts, will be declared as terrorist property and will be seized after the draft order is cleared. It will also render certain proscription offences punishable by up to 14 years in jail. Home secretary Suella Braverman called the group a “violent and destructive organisation which has acted as a military tool of Vladimir Putin’s Russia overseas”. “While Putin’s regime decides what to do with the monster it created, Wagner’s continuing destabilising activities only continue to serve the Kremlin’s political goals,” she said in a statement. “They are terrorists, plain and simple – and this proscription order makes that clear in UK law. Wagner has been involved in looting, torture and barbarous murders. Its operations in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa are a threat to global security,” the home secretary said. “That is why we are proscribing this terrorist organisation and continuing to aid Ukraine wherever we can in its fight against Russia.” Once declared illegal, Wagner will join other organisations on the proscribed list like the Islamic State, al-Qaida and neo-Nazi group National Action. The Home Office said proscription of the group comes after consideration of the nature and scale of the organisation’s activities as well as the threat they pose to British nationals abroad. In May this year, a government source said the move to declare the group illegal was “imminent” and the administration was working on building a legal case. The push came after a government department reportedly helped its millionaire owner Prigozhin to circumvent UK sanctions to take a British journalist to court in 2021. The Treasury commissioned an internal review of its processes after it was reported that licences had been issued to allow lawyers to help Prigozhin launch legal action against a reporter of investigative website Bellingcat in the UK while the Russian oligarch was subjected to sanctions. As a result of the review, the department said the government was committed to “further targeted changes to the process for issuing legal fees licences that safeguard the sanctions regime against the risk of manipulation and ensure ministers are accountable for OFSI Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation) decision-making”. Wagner’s fate as Russia’s trusted brutal force in private capacity has been hanging by a thread after its leader Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash last month. The crash occurred exactly two months after Prigozhin mounted a short-lived armed rebellion against Russia’s military leadership, posing the biggest challenge to Mr Putin’s authority in his 23-year rule. Read More With its leader dead, can the Wagner group rise and ride again? Russians are convinced Wagner warlord Prigozhin is still alive as conspiracy spreads that Putin killed body double Kremlin says 'Deliberate wrongdoing' among possible causes of plane crash that killed Prigozhin The Kremlin says Putin is not planning to attend Wagner chief Prigozhin's burial White House says Kremlin has ‘long history’ of killing its opponents following Prigozhin death
1970-01-01 08:00

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1970-01-01 08:00

Russia-Ukraine war – live: Putin’s forces destroy first UK tank as Moscow ‘seeks weapons from Kim Jong-un’
Valdimir Putin’s forces have destroyed a British Challenger 2 tank for the first time since they were deployed to the battlefield in Ukraine. A video circulating online appears to show the burning wreck of the tank. It is unclear what caused the explosion. Britain initially supplied 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine and then doubled that number to 28. Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un is planning to travel to meet Putin to discuss the possibility of providing weapons for Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to US intelligence. North Korea’s leader is planning to travel from Pyongyang later this month, likely by armoured train, to Vladivostok on the Pacific Coast of Russia where he would meet the Russian president, reported The New York Times. It is believed that while in Vladivostok, a port city not far from North Korea, the two leaders would discuss Kim sending Russia artillery shells and anti-tank missiles in exchange for more advanced technology relating to satellites and nuclear-powered submarines, according to US officials. Read More British Challenger 2 tank ‘destroyed in Ukraine’ – defence source Wagner to be declared a terrorist organisation, Home Office says Why Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are desperate for each other’s help Drone warfare map reveals how Ukraine is striking Russia hundreds of miles from the frontline
1970-01-01 08:00