PMC “Wagner” was fully funded by the state – 86 billion rubles. per year – Kommersant

President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with the military, said that the country has always respected the fighters and commanders of the Wagner PMC. According to him, the state paid for the activities of the group and from May 2022 to May 2023 paid Wagner PMC 86 billion 262 million rubles. This money was allocated for the salaries of the fighters and incentive payments.

According to the president, the owner of the Concord company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, earned 80 billion rubles during this period by supplying food for the military through Voentorg. “I hope that no one stole anything or stole less, but we will deal with all this,” the president said.

According to the president, out of 86 billion 262 million rubles. from the state, which went to finance the Wagner PMC from May 2022 to May this year, 70 billion 384 million rubles. went to the maintenance, 15 billion 877 million rubles. – incentive payments. In addition, according to him, 110 billion 179 million rubles. allocated to insurance payments. The President did not specify what these “insurance payments” were.

The state pays 5 million rubles. families who died during the special operation. On May 24, Yevgeny Prigozhin said that about 20,000 fighters of the Wagner PMC were killed in the battles for Bakhmut. Therefore, it is logical to assume that insurance payments are payments to the families of the dead Wagner mercenaries. At the same time, according to Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner PMC independently organizes medical care for all wounded soldiers, from first aid to prosthetics.

As the president noted, addressing the military, “we have always treated the fighters and commanders of this group with great respect.” “Because they really showed courage and heroism. Our soldiers, officers of the Russian army, volunteers worked in combat conditions with no less dedication. They also showed heroism and self-sacrifice, but those who served and worked in this Wagner company were respected in the country,” he said.

“It is not known what would have become of the country in the end. But all those achievements that were achieved during the hostilities, many of them, in any case, would have been lost. And you didn’t allow it,” the president added.

On January 26, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin stated that he had always financed the Wagner PMC himself, but in 2022, when the “global expansion” began, he had to look for additional sources of funding. I came up with Wagner PMC, manage Wagner PMC and always financed Wagner PMC,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin.

On June 23, Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the Ministry of Defense of hitting the rear camps of PMCs, and then announced a “march of justice” against “those who destroy Russian soldiers.” The FSB opened a criminal case under the article on organizing an armed rebellion (Article 279 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

June 24 PMC “Wagner” occupied the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don. In the evening, after negotiations with Alexander Lukashenko, the Wagner military went to field camps. On June 27, the press service of the FSB reported that the criminal case on the armed rebellion had been dropped. The Ministry of Defense will transfer heavy equipment of PMC “Wagner” to army units.

Read about the reaction of the Russian leadership to the rebellion in Andrey Kolesnikov’s report “Kommersant” “Who is fate?”.

Anastasia Larina