(Dan Tri) – The leader of a Russian media group said that the private military organization Wagner has signed contracts worth hundreds of billions of rubles with the Russian government.
Wagner tycoon Evgeny Prigozhin (Photo: AP).
`Wagner received more than 858 billion rubles ($9.8 billion) under contracts signed with the state,` Dmitry Kiselyov, head of Russian media group Rossiya Segodnya, said in the weekly news program
Mr. Kiselyov added that, according to other contracts, Concord company specializing in catering and media business of Wagner tycoon Evgeny Prigozhin also earned 845 billion rubles by providing services to the Russian government.
`This does not mean they have earned too much, but the amount still shows the scale of their business and their ambitions,` Mr. Kiselyov said.
According to Mr. Kiselyov, tycoon Prigozhin’s company has strong media influence, giving some people the impression that Wagner is Russia’s most elite front-line force.
Mr. Kiselyov insisted he did not want to `destroy anyone’s work,` but Russian regular units gained control of the heavily fortified city of Mariupol faster than the armed forces.
`Prigozhin went astray because of big money. He thought he could challenge the Ministry of Defense, the Government and the President personally,` Mr. Kiselyov added.
According to the leader of the Russian media group, Wagner’s activities in Syria and Africa made Prigozhin believe that he would not be punished, which was later reinforced by the battlefield successes of Wagner’s forces in
At a meeting with the Russian military in the Kremlin on June 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian state budget had equipped and paid for the Wagner group’s fighters.
President Putin revealed that during the period from May 2022 to May 2023, the Russian government allocated 86.26 billion rubles (1.04 billion USD) to pay salaries and incentives for military campaigns.
Meanwhile, according to President Putin, Mr. Prigozhin, founder of Wagner and owner of Concord food supply company, has earned billions of rubles from contracts with the Russian state.
`When maintaining the Wagner group fell on the shoulders of the state, Concord owners received 80 billion rubles ($960 million) from the state in one year by providing food to the army. I hope no one
It is unclear whether President Putin implied an investigation into how state funds were used by Wagner.
Wagner is a force that plays an important role in Russia’s military operations in Eastern Ukraine, especially in the city of Bakhmut, after Moscow launched a special military campaign in Ukraine last February.
On the evening of June 23, Mr. Prigozhin announced that he would lead 25,000 troops from the Ukrainian battlefield into the Rostov region on the Russian border, starting a journey he called `demanding justice` after accusing Moscow of launching a missile attack on the base.
On the evening of June 24, when Wagner’s convoy was only 200km from Moscow, Mr. Prigozhin suddenly announced his agreement to stop the advance and withdraw forces from occupied military facilities in Russia after mediation efforts by the President.
According to this agreement, Mr. Prigozhin accepted to move to Belarus.
Nick John