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Former Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozchin (62), who went into hiding after his attempted coup a week ago and may have been deported to Belarus, is said to have drained Moscow’s treasury with the equivalent of 8.7 billion francs. So said a TV presenter in the program ‘Vesti Nedeli’ on the Russian state broadcaster Rossiya 1. Then Prigozhin went completely crazy, according to Dmitri Kiselyov (69), director general of the state news agency Rossiya Sevodnya. It is unclear whether this includes the equivalent of CHF 2 billion that Prigozhin received directly from Moscow’s war chest, as President Vladimir Putin (70) confirmed last week. Otherwise, it would be a total of 10.7 billion francs with which the Kremlin financed Prigozhin.
The Wagner empire around Prigozhin is said to have invested a total of 858 billion rubles in contracts concluded with the state, including the lucrative supply of the Russian Ministry of Defense by Prigozhin’s catering company Concord. “That doesn’t mean Prigozhin earned that much,” says Kiselyov, “but it still speaks for the size of the company and the scope of its ambitions.”
According to the prominent propagandist, Prigozhin “believed that he could revolt against the Russian Ministry of Defense as well as against the state and the president himself.” The mercenary boss had apparently succumbed to megalomania. His sense of “being able to pay for everything” has existed since his troops’ operations in Syria and African countries. However, it intensified after Wagner fighters captured the Ukrainian cities of Soledar and Bakhmut.
Putin confirms Wagner billions
Prigozhin received more than 2 billion francs directly from Moscow’s war chest for the mercenary army, as war president Putin confirmed last week. For the first time, Putin admitted what he had denied for years: direct connections to the Kremlin. Prigozhin’s Wagner Private Army was financed almost entirely from the Russian budget.
According to Putin, Russian authorities have already paid more than 200 billion rubles, the equivalent of more than 2 billion Swiss francs, for Wagner’s participation in the war with Ukraine. “The defense ministry funded the group entirely from the state budget,” the BBC quoted Putin as saying.
According to this, from May 2022 to May 2023, Wagner received the equivalent of nearly 880,000 million francs in wages and bonuses, plus 1.12 billion francs in insurance payments, apparently to the injured and survivors of those who died.
Wagner becomes history
Since the alleged Wagner uprising on Saturday a week ago – it may have been Prigozhin’s flight forward to save his own ass – large-scale efforts have been underway in Russia to erase the mercenary network from collective memory.
Wagner companies were liquidated and news sites close to the mercenaries were blocked. Last Monday we heard from Prigozchin for the last time. Since then he has been considered missing. His whereabouts are unknown.
It is also doubtful whether Prigozhin still has access to his old belongings. After his actual surrender, photos circulated on social media showing his confiscated passport and valuables. Prigozhin must have had to leave his old life behind. (kes)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
