PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKIY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd July, 2023) KAMCHATSKIY, Russia, July 2 (Sputnik) - Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group private military company received over 858 billion rubles ($9.75 billion) under contracts concluded with the Russian government, Dmitry Kiselev, the director general of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, said on Sunday.
"Founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner private military company received a little more than 858 billion rubles under contracts concluded with the state. Under other contracts, Prigozhin's holding Concord provided 845 billion rubles worth of services," Kiselev said in his weekly news show on Rossiya 1 channel.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Prigozhin earned 80 billion rubles from the state in one year by supplying food and providing catering services to the army.
The Wagner Group seized an army headquarters in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on the night of June 23 and started moving toward Moscow the following day. Prigozhin presented his actions as a response to the alleged attack on his group's field camps by the Russian Defense Ministry, which the latter denied. The Wagner Group chief agreed to stop the mutiny after negotiations with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who said he acted in consultation with Putin.
Later that day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Prigozhin would not face prosecution in Russia and would relocate Wagner troops to Belarus. On Tuesday, Lukashenko confirmed that the Wagner Group head had arrived in Belarus.
