Paris: In a resolution passed on Tuesday, the French parliament demanded that the European Union designate Russian mercenary force Wagner as a "terrorist group." All political parties unanimously agreed to support the symbolic, non-binding resolution.
Its author, Benjamin Haddad of the ruling party, expressed the hope that it would persuade the 27 EU members to add Wagner to their official list of terrorist groups.
Wagner members "spread instability and violence wherever they work," he told parliament on Tuesday. "They torture and murder. They murder and plunder. They coerce and manipulate with virtually no repercussions.
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They "follow a broad strategy, from Mali to Ukraine, of supporting the aggressive policies of President (Vladimir) Putin's regime towards our democracies," he claimed, not just simple mercenaries motivated by a "appetite for money."
Due to the Wagner group's designation as a terrorist organisation, the assets of the group and its members could be frozen by EU members, and both European businesses and citizens are prohibited from doing business with the group.
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However, the European Union has already repeatedly sanctioned Wagner and its businessman leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, in February for violating human rights in Africa and in April for taking part in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The battle-scarred city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine has been under siege for months by Prigozhin's allies, who are close to Putin. In 2020, due to the Wagner fighters' deployment to a war-torn Libya, he had his assets in the EU frozen and was put on a visa blacklist; he unsuccessfully appealed this decision.
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Back then, he asserted that he had "no knowledge of an entity known as Wagner Group." Paris has accused the group of conducting anti-French propaganda campaigns in west Africa, especially Mali.The leaders of the member states of the EU approve the list of terrorists, which currently consists of 13 individuals and 21 organisations, including Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group. The parliaments of Estonia and Lithuania have also designated Wagner as a "terrorist organisation."