“Russia 1” announced state contracts of PMC “Wagner” worth hundreds of billions of rubles

“Vagner” PMC, founded by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, received almost 860 billion rubles under state contracts, said the host of Russian state television, Dmitry Kiselyov, on the air of the “Vesty Nedeli” program on the “Russia 1” channel.

In addition, according to Kiselyov, under the second contracts, Prigozhin’s holding “Concord” provided services worth 845 billion rubles. “This does not mean that they earned that much, but it still speaks of the scale of the business and the scale of ambitions,” Kiselyova is quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

During what period Prigozhin’s structure received this money, the presenter did not specify. Kiselyov also did not explain where he got this information from.

President Vladimir Putin said on June 27, a few days after the rebellion of Prigozhin and his PMC mercenaries, that this military company was fully financed by the state. At the same time, he noted that from May 2022 to May 2023, “Wagnerovtsi” received more than 86 billion rubles from the Russian authorities. In addition, according to Putin, Prigozhin’s company “Concord” through Voentorg earned 80 billion rubles an hour on food supplies for the military. Also, more than 110 billion rubles were spent on insurance payments. At the same time, the Russian president said that the authorities intend to deal with the earnings of “Concord”, and “expressed the hope” that no one stole anything or “stole less” during these works.

• Before the war in Ukraine, the authorities tried to keep the existence and financing of the PMC a secret. After the beginning of the Russian invasion, the company became widely known and openly engaged in the recruitment of mercenaries in Russia. At the front in Ukraine, PMC “Wagner” was considered one of the most combat-ready units.
• After the rebellion raised by Yevgeny Prigozhin against, as he claimed, the military leadership of Russia, the Russian authorities are apparently trying to neutralize the influence of the “Wagnerians”. Mercenaries were offered, in particular, to conclude a contract with the Ministry of Defense.
• On July 2, there were reports that the Russian Defense Ministry had terminated the supply contract with Concorde.