PMC Wagner received the status of "organization of particular concern" from the US State Department, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said. According to Blinken, this status is given to her for her activities in the Central African Republic. Together with PMC Wagner, this status was given to Al-Shabab (Youth Movement of the Mujahideen), Boko Haram (Nigerian terrorist Islamist organization), Hayat Tahrir ash-Sham (radical Salafi group), the Houthis, ISIS – the Great Sahara , ISIS – West Africa, Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Mali), the Taliban.
At the same time, Russia is directly included in the list of countries of particular concern for participating in or allowing particularly serious violations of religious freedom. Also included in this list are Burma, the People's Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Earlier it was reported that the US Congress was proposed to recognize PMC Wagner as a terrorist organization. Senators from both American political parties introduced a bill to that effect. The bill was sponsored by Republican Roger Wicker and Democrat Ben Cardin. According to Senator Cardin, the Wagner PMC is "credibly linked" to "countless atrocities" in Ukraine, Syria and the African continent. Senator Walker also recalls that the Wagner PMC is involved in the murder of three Russian journalists who went to the Central African Republic to investigate the activities of mercenaries in gold mining in the republic.
“The Wagner Group also killed and threatened journalists, kidnapped children, used nerve agents against civilians, committed acts of torture, and engaged in rape and sex trafficking in women and children.”
At the end of November, the European Parliament recognized Russia as a "state sponsor of terrorism and a state using the means of terrorism." In October, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution according to which the ruling regime in Russia is recognized as a terrorist one, and Russia's presence in the UN Security Council is called into question. Gleb Bogush, an expert on international criminal law, told The Insider that this does not entail legal consequences for Russia.