Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday (27) that the funding of the Wagner Group, which rebelled against the Russian military command last weekend, was fully covered by the state budget.
“The Wagner Group was fully supported by the state, the Ministry of Defense and the state coffers,” Putin told a meeting with Russian military personnel in the Kremlin.
“We fully finance this group,” he reiterated.
Putin specified that only “between May 2022 and May 2023, the state allocated 86 billion rubles (about R$ 4.8 billion) for the maintenance of the Wagner Group”, a private military company that is illegal in Russia.
Meanwhile, Concord company owner and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin earned 80 billion rubles in one year ($1.25 billion) for supplying food to the Russian army, he added.
“I hope that no one has stolen anything or stolen a little. But, without a doubt, we will take care of it,” assured Putin, hinting at an investigation into the use of public money by members of Wagner, who had been fighting for 16 months in Ukraine, for an uprising. against the Russian military command.
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