THE PLAYERS
THE WAGNER LEADERSHIP
Valery (Valeriy) Nikolaevich ZAKHAROV
Валерий Николаевич Захаров
(Russian spelling)
Position(s): Security counsellor to the President of the Central African Republic (CAR)
Wagner Group ID: M-5658
DOB: 12.1.1970
POB: Leningrad, Russian SFSR (now Russian Federation)
Nationality: Russian
Gender: male
Valery Zakharov, a former member of the Russian state security (FSB), is the security counsellor to the President of the Central African Republic (CAR). He is a key figure in the Wagner Group’s command structure and keeps close links with the Russian authorities.
Given his influential position in CAR and his leading role in the Wagner group, he is responsible for serious human rights abuses committed by the Wagner Group in CAR, which include extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings.
This includes the murder of three Russian journalists in 2018, the security of whom was under the responsibility of Valery Zakharov.
Valery Nikolayevich Zakharov (Zakharov) is a Russian national and Wagner Group employee, who served as the National Security Advisor to CAR’s President, serving in both roles simultaneously. During his tenure as the CAR’s National Security Advisor, Zakharov influenced the strategic direction of the Wagner Group in the CAR, while advising CAR’s President on security matters. Zakharov is being designated under E.O. 13667 for being owned or controlled by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, PMC Wagner, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13667.
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1220