Evgeny Prigozhin earned billions of rubles from government contracts while using state money to pay fighters, Vladimir Putin said
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with servicemen at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia. © Sputnik/Mikhail Tereshchenko
The Wagner Group was fully dependent on state support, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the country’s military in the Kremlin on Tuesday. The private military company’s fighters were supplied and paid by the Defense Ministry and the state budget, he added.
Between May 2022 and May 2023, the Russian authorities allocated 86.26 billion rubles ($1.04 billion) for wages and incentive payments for the Wagner fighters, the president revealed.
