BIS Entity List: PMC Wagner — Footnote 3 Russian Military End-User Designation

Mechanism

PMC Wagner was first placed on the Entity List on June 22, 2017, with a license requirement covering all items subject to the EAR and a policy of denial. This December 2022 modification does not create a new restriction but escalates the administrative record in three ways:

1. Footnote 3 designation — the most consequential change. Footnote 3 flags the entity as a Russian military end user under 15 CFR § 744.21 of the EAR. This designation has regulatory effect beyond the individual Entity List entry: it activates the broader Military End-User rule framework, closing any potential loophole whereby items reaching Wagner via a third-country intermediary might otherwise avoid review.

2. Two new aliases — "Chvk Vagner" and "Vagner Group" added to the existing three (Chastnaya Voennaya Kompaniya 'Vagner', PMC Wagner, Wagner Group). The expanded alias list tightens due-diligence compliance obligations for exporters doing name-based screening.

3. New address — 15 Zolnaya Street, Saint Petersburg, 195213, Russia added to the record. This reflects BIS's updated intelligence picture of Wagner's administrative footprint in Russia.

The timing coincides with the height of Wagner's operational role in the Ukraine war (late-2022 Bakhmut offensive) and concurrent OFAC actions tightening the Russia sanctions perimeter. The Footnote 3 designation formally encodes what US agencies had long treated as a factual matter: Wagner functions as an extension of the Russian state's military apparatus.

Downstream implications

• Any company with pre-existing authorization to export EAR-controlled items to Russia

must now treat any Wagner-affiliated entity — under all five aliases — as a denied party with global application, not just Russia-destination transactions.

• The Footnote 3 designation can trigger enhanced due-diligence obligations for exporters

operating in theaters where Wagner is present (Africa, Middle East, Ukraine).

• The alias expansion increases the surface area for compliance screening matches,

particularly in African commodity-trade supply chains where Wagner operates under informal local branding.

Open questions

• Whether subsequent OFAC SDN designations of Wagner (announced February 2023) rendered

this BIS modification largely moot from a practical compliance standpoint — or whether the EAR-based Footnote 3 designation retains independent legal significance for non-US-person exporters subject to EAR but not OFAC jurisdiction.