McCaul on US Sanctioning Russia’s Wagner Group Head Ivan Maslov

Washington, D.C. — Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) implemented sanctions on Ivan Maslov, the Mali-based head of the Russian private military company Wagner.

“Wagner is more than a Transnational Criminal Organization — it is a weapon of malign influence wielded by the Putin regime. Wagner is exploiting the Malian people, turning the country into a transshipment point for weapons, exploiting the extractive sector, and committing severe human rights violations. I call for the expanded use of sanctions to target Wagner and its enablers throughout Africa, in Ukraine and around the globe.”

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