Putin announced state financing of PMC “Wagner” in the amount of 86 billion rubles

PMC “Wagner” was fully financed by the state. The President of Russia stated this at a meeting with military personnel in the Kremlin. According to Vladimir Putin, from May 2022 to May 2023, the PMC received more than 86 billion rubles from the Russian authorities. Money was allocated for the maintenance of mercenaries.

In addition, Putin said that the owner of the PMC — Yevgeny Prigozhin’s company “Concord” — through Voentorg earned 80 billion rubles an hour on food supplies for the military. Also, 110 billion rubles were spent on insurance payments, Putin said.

“I hope that no one stole anything or stole less, but we will deal with it all,” added Putin.

PMC “Wagner” is an unofficial paramilitary formation. Prigozhin for a long time denied his involvement in PMC “Wagner” and sued journalists who claimed his connection with the company, but last September the businessman said that he created PMC.

In January, Prigozhin said that he himself financed the company. According to the businessman, during the war with Ukraine, his mercenaries did not receive funding from the state.

• On the night of June 24, the mercenaries of PMC “Wagner” marched from their bases in the east of Ukraine to the Rostov region without a fight, where they captured one of the largest cities in Russia – Rostov-on-Don and one of the headquarters of the Russian army without a fight. Later, they managed to block the Russian military in another city with a million population, Voronezh.
• As reported on June 24, the federal troops were preparing the first lines of real defense on the banks of the Oka in the Moscow region, a thousand kilometers from Rostov.
• The rebellion was stopped after negotiations with the head of the PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin. He was guaranteed departure to the Republic of Belarus.
• During the mutiny, PMC fighters shot down several helicopters and a plane of the Russian army. 13 pilots died.

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