The U.S. Treasury Department designated the Russian Wagner Group as a Transnational Criminal Organization on 26 January 2023. It included as part of the sanctions numerous entities and individuals that support the Wagner Group's military operations in Ukraine and Africa, including the Central African Republic, Libya, and Mali. One of the sanctioned support groups was China's Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute Co. Ltd.
The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, an independent think tank, published on 25 January 2023 an analysis titled "Understanding the US Designation of the Wagner Group as a Transnational Criminal Organisation" by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Emelie Chace-Donahue, and Colin P. Clarke. This piece looks at the reasons for designating the Wagner Group a Transnational Criminal Organization. It emphasizes that the organization's natural resource smuggling (gold and diamonds) from Africa (Central African Republic, Sudan and Mali) is one of the primary reasons. The Wagner Group also engages in money laundering and illicit financing and has been implicated in the violation of the international arms embargo in Libya.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators issued a press release on 15 February 2023 announcing they have introduced legislation called Holding Accountable Russian Mercenaries that would require the Secretary of State to designate the Wagner Group as a foreign terrorist organization, a significant escalation of sanctions.
