EU and UK sanction Russian oligarch Evgeny Prigozhin over support for mercenaries in Libya
The European Union has added Russian oligarch Evgeny Prigozhin to its Libya sanctions list due to his ties to and support of the Wagner Group private military company (PMC), reports the latest volume of the Official Journal of the European Union.
The journal states that Prigozhin has “close links, including financially” to the Wagner PMC. In addition, according to the EU, the Wagner Group has repeatedly violated the arms embargo in Libya and has taken part in “multiple military operations against the UN-endorsed Government of National Accord.”
The United Kingdom later announced that it is imposing sanctions on Prigozhin, as well, deeming him “responsible for significant foreign mercenary activity in Libya and multiple breaches of the UN arms embargo.”
According to various estimates there are between 800–1,200 to 2,5000 Wagner Group mercenaries fighting in Libya. In April, the Libyan Government of the National Accord accused Russian mercenaries of using chemical weapons against their forces.
In January 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that if there are Wagner Group mercenaries in Syria, then “they don’t represent the interests of the Russian government.”
Russian national Maxim Shugaley, a political consultant linked to Evgeny Prigozhin, was arrested in Libya in June 2019. According to some reports, he was arrested allegedly for interfering in the Libyan elections. Other reports claim that his arrest was over a secret meeting with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (the son of late Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi), who is opposing the Government of National Accord. Officially, Shugaley was in Libya to conduct sociological research.
Read more about Prigozhin’s involvement in Africa
- Prigozhin’s patriot An oligarch-linked political strategist is running in Russia’s regional elections despite being imprisoned in Libya
- A small price to pay for Tripoli Between 10 and 35 Russian mercenaries have been killed in the Libyan Civil War. We identified several of them.
- ‘Planned and professional’ One year later, independent investigators say there’s been a cover-up to hide the murder of three Russian journalists in Africa
- From ‘Putin's chef’ to ‘Putin's hitman’? After confessing to attacking and poisoning people on behalf of Evgeny Prigozhin, a newspaper source suddenly disappears
Evgeny Prigozhin
A businessman and restaurateur from St. Petersburg. His catering empire supplies food to major state facilities, including schools in Moscow and military commissaries around the country. In the media, Prigozhin is known as “Putin’s chef” because of his personal ties to the president. He’s also been implicated in the management of troll factories, a fake-news empire, and the “Wagner” private military company. U.S. officials say Prigozhin orchestrated a campaign to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.