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UK slaps sanctions on Russians allegedly linked to Wagner PMC in Africa

The blacklist also includes eight individuals whom the British Foreign Office views as staff members of Prigozhin’s companies or Wagner commanders

LONDON, July 20. /TASS/. The British government has introduced sanctions against eight individuals and five companies in the Central African Republic, Sudan and Mali, who have alleged links to the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), according to an updated blacklist published by the Foreign Office on Thursday.

The sanctions target Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s M-Invest company, which is allegedly engaged in gold mining in Sudan, Sudan’s Meroe Gold and Al-Solag Mining Company, as well as Lobaye Invest Sarlu and Sewa Security, active in the Central African Republic and allegedly "involved in actions and activities which undermine or threaten peace, stability and security" in the country. The document claims that all these companies are linked to the Wagner PMC.

The blacklist also includes eight individuals whom the British Foreign Office views as staff members of Prigozhin’s companies or Wagner commanders. Those are Meroe Gold director and M-Invest regional director Mikhail Potyopkin, M-Invest director general Andrey Mandel, as well as Alexander Maloletko, Konstantin Pikalov (call sign: Mazay), Alexander Ivanov, Vitaly Perfilev, who is said to be "the head of the Wagner Group in the Central African Republic," head of the Russian House in the Central African Republic’s capital of Bangui Dmitry Syty, and Ivan Maslov, said to be the head of the Wagner group in Mali.

The sanctions involve a freeze of assets in the United Kingdom and a ban on entry into the country.

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