Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Conclusion 6
Seventh Report - Guns for gold: the Wagner Network exposed
Published 26 Jul 2023
Paragraph 31
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Foreign Affairs Committee The Wagner Group and beyond: proxy Private Military Companies All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Over the past year and a half, the Russia-Ukraine war eroded the Wagner Network’s deniability and Prigozhin’s public arguments with the Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed the network’s long-suspected links to the Russian state. The brutality of its fighters in Ukraine is appalling but not atypical. So long as the network survives in some form, we believe that countries may still turn to it in future. Many leaders— mostly in insecure environments in Africa—are likely already to have known the price of engaging the network when they decided to work with it.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, Seventh Report - Guns for gold: the Wagner Network exposed (HC 167), paragraph 31, 26 July 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 30 October 2023 (deadline 26 September 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government responds to the Committee's recommendations by agreeing with some, partially agreeing with others and disagreeing with one, and says it has already proscribed Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation.
- On proscription, it "agrees" with the Committee's recommendation and says the order added Wagner Group to the list of proscribed organisations under the Terrorism Act 2000, in force from 15 September.
- It disagrees with a specific mechanism for coordinating Wagner sanctions with the US and EU, stating that existing mechanisms already enable close coordination, though it "will, however, keep the option of a specific mechanism for Wagner under review".
- On sanctions it partially agrees, saying its ability to sanction "depends on being able to build individual cases in line with the statutory requirements" and that it "will consider" the Committee's appendices in detail when considering further action.
- On aid, it partially agrees: it is committed to 0.7% of Gross National Income on ODA "once the fiscal situation allows", but says it currently has "no plans to reintroduce the FCAS spending commitment".