Kremlin says Putin met Prigozhin five days after attempted Wagner coup
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former hot dog seller turned Wager group leader, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin only days after his brief mutiny.
The Kremlin claimed today that Putin met with Prigozhin and his commanders on June 29 – five days after Wagner troops marched towards Moscow.
The meeting, which saw 35 people invited including unit commanders, lasted three hours, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
During a separate meeting today with defence officials, Putin said that Wagner, a private paramilitary group, is fully funded by the state.
Wagner has been given tens of billions of rubles in public money over the past year, Putin said, according to state-owned news agencies TASS and Ria Novosti.
‘I want to point out and I want everyone to know about it: The maintenance of the entire Wagner Group was fully provided for by the state,’ the president said.
‘From the Ministry of Defense, from the state budget, we fully financed this group.’
The company that owns Wagner, the Concord, earned a further 80 billion from state contracts, such as supplying food to the army, Putin added.
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