On Friday, Britain officially labeled the Russian Wagner group a terrorist group, which means that anyone who is a member of the group or financially supports it risks up to 14 years in prison. The group is a threat to global security, according to Interior Minister Suella Braverman.
Last spring, Sweden’s foreign minister announced that the government wants the EU to follow the same path. That line is fixed:
– We have been clear for many years with what we think of the Wagner group and its activities and we intend to continue to push our line both in the EU and in contacts with African partners, says Tobias Billström (M) to SVT’s Foreign Office.
The EU’s list of terrorist organizations currently consists of 21 groups. Those who are labeled as terrorists have their assets in the Union frozen. But in order for an organization to be classified as a terrorist group, a judicial review is required, and that is what the government wants to push for. A competent authority or third party must have initiated a preliminary investigation against the group, or an individual connected to the group, in order for it to be nominated to the terror list.
“Neocolonial politics”
Tobias Billström believes that Sweden has an important role to play in that work, as well as in the discussion with African countries that are close to Russia and that have received help from the Wagner group.
– Sweden does not have a colonial past and what the Wagner group is now engaged in and what Russia is engaged in is a neo-colonial policy towards Ukraine. It is something that many African countries actually recognize.
Sweden’s former defense minister Peter Hultqvist (S) also wants to see a terrorist classification of the Wagner Group.
– It is a Russian-backed state terrorism that is exported to various countries. That is what is happening, he says in the Foreign Office.
Hear the Minister of Foreign Affairs about what a terror stamp could mean for the Wagner group in the clip above.
See Foreign Office: Terror stamp Wagner about the Wagner group after Prigozhin’s death on SVT Play.