WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Thursday expanded U.S. sanctions against Russia's Wagner Group and related companies and individuals for their role in the war in Ukraine and mercenary activities, including human rights abuses, in Africa.
The Treasury and State departments announced the moves in coordinated statements that target dozens of Wagner Group affiliates, including some in the Central African Republic and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the president of Russia's Kalashnikov Concern, the original manufacturer of the AK-47 assault rifle.
The sanctions also hit the Chinese company Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute Co. LTD, also known as Spacety China, which has supplied Wagner Group affiliates with satellite imagery of Ukraine that support Wagner's military operations there. A Luxembourg-based subsidiary of Spacety China was also targeted.
The announcements re-designate the Wagner Group, a private Russian military group owned by a close associate of President Vladimir Putin, as a “significant transnational criminal organization.” The firm had already been identified as such but the re-designations expand the sanctions.
The sanctions freeze any assets those identified may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from conducting business with them by adding a number of affiliates to American blacklists.
“As sanctions and export controls on Russia from our…
