Vladimir Putin claims that Russian state paid billions to Wagner paramilitaries

Vladimir Putin said that the Russian state paid billions to the Wagner paramilitary organization, as new details of the deal which ended ‘s mutiny last weekend emerged.

Putin acknowledged for the first, after years of Kremlin denialism, that Wagner was “completely funded” by the government. Rbs86bn ($1bn), in payments from May 2022 through May 2023. Rbs110bn more in insurance payouts.

The president of Belarus confirmed that Yevgeny Prgozhin, founder of Wagner’s, was in Belarus. At the same time the Russian Defence Ministry announced that it had taken control over the heavy weapons used by paramilitaries.

Putin has now moved to subsume Prigozhin and his group into the official army after Prigozhin’s failed march on Moscow Saturday.

Putin stated that in addition to the direct payment to Wagner, Prigozhin’s catering company Concord received an additional Rbs80bn from army catering contracts.

Putin said, “I hope no one stole anything or did not steal much. We’ll fix this.”

Alexander Lukashenko was the Belarus President who brokered the agreement that ended the uprising. He said, “Security guarantees. . . Prigozhin was assured of a safe departure from Russia by “providing” the necessary means. The Wagner founder is now in Belarus.

Lukashenko claimed that Wagner’s fighters were back in base camps in the occupied Luhansk area of Ukraine. This was days after the fighters took over the Russian city Rostov, and marched on to Moscow as an unprecedented test of Putin’s authority.

Even many of the hardliners who support his War in Ukraine claim that Wagner has made embarrassing concessions.

According to the state newswire Ria Novosti, the FSB (Russia’s main security agency) has closed its investigation of the weekend revolt, because the participants “had ceased the activities that directly aimed to commit the crime”.

The Kremlin initially said that the charges against Wagner would be dropped. However, the Kremlin has continued to enforce them, as a way to pressure Wagner into observing the agreement.

Putin’s supporters are disappointed at the Russian President’s sudden change of heart. Wagner was let off with no charges, even though the paramilitaries had seized the southern military headquarters, marched to Moscow and killed at least 13 Russian soldiers.

Putin’s decision to not press charges against Prigozhin over the first coup attempt of the country in 30 years was a major turn-around after Prigozhin had been called a “stab in back” by Putin.

Dmitry Peskov said that Putin, the Russian leader, had decided to not prosecute Prigozhin in order to avoid bloodshed.

Peskov stated on Tuesday that there was a desire to avoid the worst case scenario. Putin is always true to his word. He kept promises and the agreements were being fulfilled.

Putin met with security officers and soldiers on Tuesday, praising their efforts to stop the uprising. Some of their leaders admitted that they had not done much.

Putin, at a ceremony held outside the ornate medieval Orthodox Christian church of the Kremlin, said that Russia’s security services had “basically stopped a civil conflict” and observed a moment of silence in memory for the pilots who were killed Saturday while resisting the paramilitary Wagner group’s advance, saying they “fulfilled their duties with honour”.

Putin claimed that the men had “stood against unrest which would have invariably led to chaos”.

Wagner has not confirmed whether it will surrender its arms to the Russian Defence Ministry, whose officials have been the target of Prigozhin’s ire since months when the invasion of Ukraine sputtered.

Viktor Zolotov said that after attending Putin’s Kremlin speech on Tuesday, they discussed the possibility of giving heavy weapons to his units.