The UK did not recognize the Wagner PMC as a terrorist organization due to attempted rebellion and government funding - The Times

The British authorities did not recognize Wagner PMC as a terrorist organization. The reason for this was an attempted military mutiny by mercenaries and Putin’s words that the PMC was funded by the state. about this The Times newspaper writes , citing sources in the British government.

Journalists note that the “key role” of Prigozhin’s mercenaries in implementing Putin’s policies in Africa was obvious, but formally it was a “private army.” After Putin’s statement that Wagner PMC was fully funded by the Russian state, it became more difficult to recognize it as a terrorist organization.

As the publication’s interlocutors explained, after these words from Putin, adding Wagner PMC to the blacklist “would mean banning the activities of an organization of the Russian government, which would be extremely unusual and would entail a number of diplomatic and legal difficulties.”

However, according to the newspaper, British Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Deputy Minister for Security Tom Tugendhat did not abandon their intentions to recognize the Wagner PMC as terrorist.

If this is done, attending meetings of the Wagner PMC, calling for its support and publicly wearing its symbols will be criminal offenses in the UK. This will put the PMC on a par with the terrorist groups Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, The Times writes.

At the end of June, a few days after the Wagner PMC mutiny, Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the military that Russia “fully” financed the activities of the mercenaries. Over the course of the year, they received almost 200 billion rubles from the budget.

Later, an employee of the Russia 1 TV channel, Dmitry Kiselev , stated that Wagner PMC received almost 860 billion rubles under government contracts, and Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Concord holding provided services worth 845 billion rubles.

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