After Wagner mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny, President Vladimir Putin said Wagner and its creator had collected approximately $2 billion from Russia.
Putin first threatened to smash the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime chaos that led to the 1917 revolutions and civil war, but hours later, he agreed to let Prigozhin and some of his men flee to Belarus.
Putin told Russian army personnel in the Kremlin that he appreciated Wagner’s fighters but that the state had “fully financed” the outfit.
The defense ministry gave it 86 billion roubles ($1 billion) between May 2022 and May 2023.
Putin said Prigozhin’s Concord catering company earned 80 billion roubles from governmental contracts to feed the Russian army.
“I do hope that, as part of this work, no one stole anything, or, let’s say, stole less, but we will, of course, investigate all of this.”
Putin did not name Prigozhin, so he could not comment immediately.
Earlier this year, he indicated that he had always sponsored Wagner but sought additional funding after the Ukraine crisis. On Monday, he declared he was a patriot attempting to settle with the defense ministry and not overthrow the Russian state.
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