Evgeny Prigozhin earned billions of rubles from government contracts while using state money to pay fighters, Vladimir Putin said
The Wagner Group was fully dependent on state support, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a meeting with the country’s military commanders in the Kremlin on Tuesday. The private military company’s fighters were supplied and paid by the Defense Ministry and the state budget, he added.
Between May 2022 and May 2023, the Russian authorities allocated 86.26 billion rubles ($1.04 billion) for wages and incentive payments for the Wagner fighters, the president revealed.
Meanwhile, Wagner founder Evgeny Prigozhin, who also owns the Concord catering company, earned billions of rubles on state contracts, Putin added.
“When the upkeep of the Wagner Group rested on the shoulders of the state, the Concord owner received… 80 billion rubles ($960 million) from the state in a year by supplying food products to the army,” the…
