On Tuesday, the United States announced sanctions on one individual and four companies linked to the Russian mercenary group Wagner and its leader, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, involved in illegal gold transactions to finance their activities.

The entities are located in the Central African Republic, the United Arab Emirates and Russia and, with these illicit gold transactions, they finance the Wagner Group and support its armed forces in Ukraine and Africa.

In a statement, the US Treasury Department explained that the Wagner Group finances its operations partly through the exploitation of natural resources in countries such as the Central African Republic and Mali.

The companies sanctioned are Midas Ressources, a mining company based in the Central African Republic which, according to the US, is "affiliated with Yevgeniy Prigozhin" and considered "key to financing Wagner's operations" in that and other countries.

Also targeted by the sanctions were Diamville, a gold and diamond buying company based in the same African country which, according to the Treasury, is involved in a scheme to sell this metal, and Industrial Resources General Trading, a Dubai-based distributor of industrial products which provided financial support to Prigozhin through its commercial agreements with Diamville.

Finally, the US sanctioned the Russian-based Limited Liability Company, which also took part in the gold-selling scheme, as well as the Russian Andrey Nikolayevich Ivanov, a Wagner Group executive whose work has been key to its activities in Mali.

The sanctions are aimed at disrupting "key players in the Wagner Group's financial network and international structure," said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson, quoted in a statement.

As a result of these sanctions, all the assets and holdings of those targeted in the United States will be frozen.

The Wagner Group, a Russian private security company owned by Yevgueni Prigozhin, has been contracted by the Kremlin for the war in Ukraine, although its operations also extend to other countries such as Syria, Libya, Mali or the Central African Republic. (NM)