Source · Select Committees · Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 33
33
Accepted
Assign clear responsibility for Wagner Network and establish cross-government lead on PMCs.
Recommendation
The Government should take a more strategic and coherent approach to addressing the challenges of this network and other proxy ‘PMCs’ by: (Paragraph 84) (a) assigning clear responsibility for the Wagner Network and adjacent ‘PMCs’ to a senior official in the Russia Unit, whose primary job it is to ensure that all levers of government are working together to tackle the challenges of Russia-aligned PMCs; (b) establishing a cross-Government lead on Private Military Companies, operating from the Cabinet Office’s Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation, focused on analysing this trend, mapping activity globally, and bringing together different geographic desks and teams across the MoD, Treasury, intelligence community and FCDO as appropriate to assess threats to British interests, and to identify British responses as appropriate; (c) establishing a taskforce for addressing the challenges posed by the Wagner Network and other linked PMCs, to enable swift cross-government collaboration.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, stating that a dedicated team led by a senior official in the HMG Russia Unit coordinates the cross-government response to Wagner and Russian PMSCs, working with the FCDO's Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation (OCSM) to monitor and address these challenges.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
Agree. We have a team dedicated to coordinating the Government’s response to the cross-cutting challenge posed by Wagner Group and Russian use of PMSCs as proxies. This team is also focused on driving forward international cooperation on the issue. Responsibility for this work is assigned to a specific Senior Official in the HMG Russia Unit, accountable to departments through the HMG Russia Strategy. The team does not sit under the Office for Conflict Stabilisation & Mediation (OCSM), but works with and alongside OCSM. OCSM (which is part of the FCDO rather than the Cabinet Office) is responsible for developing new approaches to reduce conflict and instability, minimising the opportunities for state and non-state actors to undermine our interests. OCSM capability therefore focuses on providing analysis and advice on the enablers and drivers of conflict, including conflict actors, such as PMSCs. This includes monitoring activities of groups like Wagner, capturing evidence to inform our response to conflict, exploring how PMSCs impact conflict dynamics and peace dialogues, and working with partners to build resilience to counter vulnerabilities that conflict actors might exploit. Given reports of Wagner committing conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine, CAR and Mali, our efforts under the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) focus on strengthening justice and accountability for survivors. For example, in Ukraine, we are supporting the Office of the Prosecutor General to investigate and prosecute these crimes in a survivor-centric manner more effectively. The Government will continue to monitor the situation and address it through delivery of our PSVI strategy, which was launched in 2022. OCSM’s work is important in building the UK’s understanding of conflict and how to resolve the problems posed by entities such as Wagner. But HMG Russia Unit will continue to co-ordinate efforts to constrain and counter Wagner Group and other Russian proxy PMSCs given their relationship with the Russian state.