Putin says Wagner Group was ‘fully financed’ by Russian government

At a meeting with military officials on Tuesday, Vladimir Putin said that the Russian government “fully” financed the activities of Wagner Group, state media has reported.

According to Putin, maintaining the entire private military company from May 2022 to May 2023 cost the Russian budget 86.3 billion rubles ($1.01 billion). He also said the government allocated an additional 110 billion rubles ($1.29 billion) for insurance payments to Wagner Group fighters.

The Russian president also said that “the owner” of the company Concord Group, referring to Yevgeny Prigozhin, earned about 80 billion rubles ($937.6 million) “from the state” during the same period by supplying food to the Russian military.

“I hope nobody stole anything or stole as little as possible in the course of these operations, but we’ll be thoroughly investigating all of that,” he added.