Putin comment on Wagner ‘like direct evidence’ of illegality: prosecutor

The Hague: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent comments about payments to the Wagner group was “like direct evidence” that Wagner’s mercenaries were an illegal arm of the Russian army in the war, Ukraine’s top prosecutor has told Reuters.

Putin said last week that Wagner and its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had received almost $US2 billion ($3 billion) from Russia in the past year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin tours an exhibition of promising Russian companies during the forum “Strong ideas for the new time” in Moscow on June 29.Credit: Reuters

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin made the comments in The Hague, where he was attending the opening of the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression on Monday.

Kostin said his office had identified Prigozhin as a suspect during investigations this year and that Wagner fighters were responsible for some of the most serious war crimes since the February 24, 2022 invasion.

While Russia attempts to distinguish between Wagner forces and its military, Putin’s comments last week about state budget spending on Wagner was “like direct evidence that they are not only de facto, but probably, illegally, also are part of the Russian army”. The use of mercenaries by states in armed conflict is banned under the Geneva Conventions.

Among more than 93,000 incidents of potential war crimes Kostin’s office was investigating were many atrocities Wagner forces committed, Kostin said.

They are “among the most severe crimes against our civilians and our prisoners of war”, Kostin said.

The Wagner Group poses a threat not only to Ukraine, but to peace and security in many countries, including in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, he said.

Kostin appealed to allies, including the United States and Britain, to classify Wagner as a terrorist organisation so it can be prosecuted and its assets frozen.

“Prigozhin is already a suspect in criminal proceedings in Ukraine, but the main thing is to stop the activity of such groups,” he said.

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan and Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin visit the site of a residential building damaged by a Russian missile strike in late November in Vyshhorod, outside Kyiv.Credit: Reuters

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin will participate this week in his first multilateral summit since the armed rebellion rattled Russia, as part of a rare international grouping in which his country still enjoys support.

Leaders will convene virtually on Tuesday for a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, a security grouping founded by Russia and China to counter Western alliances from East Asia to the Indian Ocean.

This year’s event is hosted by India, which became a member in 2017. It’s the latest avenue for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to showcase the country’s growing global clout.

The group so far has focused on deepening security and economic co-operation, fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, tackling climate change and the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban took over in 2021. When the foreign ministers met in India last month, Russia’s war on Ukraine barely featured in their public remarks but the fallout for developing countries on food and fuel security remains a concern for the group, analysts say.

The forum is more important than ever for Moscow, which is eager to show that the West has failed to isolate it. The group includes the four Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, in a region where Russian influence runs deep. Others include Pakistan, which became a member in 2017, and Iran, which is set to join on Tuesday. Belarus is also in line for membership.

“This SCO meeting is really one of the few opportunities globally that Putin will have to project strength and credibility,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Centre’s South Asia Institute.

None of the member countries has condemned Russia in UN resolutions, choosing instead to abstain. China has sent an envoy to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, and India has repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

For Putin, personally, the summit presents an opportunity to show he is in control after a short-lived insurrection by Prigozhin.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) with Russian President Vladimir Putin before their talks on a sideline of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in June 2019.Credit: AP

“Putin will want to reassure his partners that he is very much still in charge, and leave no doubt that the challenges to his government have been crushed,” said Tanvi Madan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

India announced in May that the summit would be held online instead of in-person like last year in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where Putin posed for photographs and dined with other leaders.

For New Delhi at least, the optics of hosting Putin and China’s leader Xi Jinping just two weeks after Modi was honoured with a pomp-filled state visit by US President Joe Biden would be less than ideal.

After all the fanfare Modi received from American leaders on his recent visit, “it would have been too soon [for India] to be welcoming Chinese and Russian leaders”, Kugelman said.

Analysts say China, seeking to posture itself as a global force, is becoming a dominant player in forums like the SCO, where interest for full membership from countries such as Myanmar, Turkey and Afghanistan has grown in recent years.

“The limitation with the SCO is that China and Russia are trying to turn it into an anti-Western grouping, and that does not fit with India’s independent foreign policy,” Madan said.

The SCO could also prove challenging for Washington and its allies in the long run.

“For countries uncomfortable with the West and their foreign policies, the SCO is a welcome alternative, mainly because of the roles Russia and China play ... I think that highlights just how relevant and concerning this group could be for a number of Western capitals, especially if it keeps expanding,” Kugelman said.

Reuters, AP

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