Putin acknowledges that Russian state fully funded Wagner Group “private military company”

The financing of the Wagner Group was exclusively sourced from Russia's state budget, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed days after Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin's failed mutiny. Owned by Russian oligarch Evgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group has formally been a private military company. However, the Group has extensively used the Russian army's heavy equipment and aircraft, and operated alongside the Russian military in Syria, Africa, and Ukraine.

"I want us all to know this too, the maintenance of the entire Wagner group was fully provided by the state - from the Defense Ministry, from the state budget. We fully financed this group," Putin said at a meeting with the Russian military on 27 June, according to Interfax..

According to Putin, "only from May 2022 to May 2023 the state has paid to Wagner 86,262,000,000 rubles (about $1 billion, - Ed.) as cash allowance and incentive payments," of which allowance amounted to $823,5, incentive payments to  $185,7. Putin added that 110,179,000,000 rubles ($1.289 billion) were allocated to insurance payments. Read also:

• Putin allows Wagner fighters to “leave to Belarus,” quit, or subordinate to Russia’s MoD
• Prigozhin’s failed mutiny: What made him back down?
• Wagner’s mutiny exposes serious cracks in Putin’s regime, Blinken says
• Wagner chief Prigozhin planned mutiny in Russia since mid-June – Washington Post
• Prigozhin stops Wagner forces 200 km away from Moscow, says they return to field camps