After years of denials, the Russian president has just admitted it: the Russian state was financing the Wagner group. Without warning and without prior announcement, as is his habit, even for an important announcement, sitting behind his desk, a sheet in his hand, as if he had taken note of the accounts, President Putin made this declaration in a smooth, unemphasized tone.
From our correspondent in Moscow
” We fully funded this group through the budget of the Ministry of Defense and the state budget. From May 2022 to May 2023 alone, the state paid the Wagner company salaries and incentive bonuses of 86 billion 262 million rubles, including 70 billion 384 million in cash, bonuses of 15 billion 877 million rubles, insurance payments of 110 billion 179 million, while the owner of the Concord company through contracts with the military and (despite the fact that all maintenance of Wagner depended on the state) earned 80 billion rubles by providing food for the army. The state took over the financial support and Concord, at the time in parallel, earned 80 billion. I hope during that time no one stole anything or stole just a little. Of course, that too, we will find out “said the Russian president.
Vladimir Putin: “We financed this group entirely through the budget of the Ministry of Defense and the state budget…”
Putin thanks soldiers who prevented ‘civil war’
It is a long media sequence that Vladimir Putin began on Monday evening June 26 to show that he has the country well in hand. After his short speech last night, stage at midday this Tuesday with a solemn ceremony with the security forces.
Red carpet on the place Cathedrals, inside of the Kremlin. Solemn speech by Vladimir Putin to his security forces: army, National Guard, FSB, Ministry of the Interior and FSO, the close guard of the president.
” In the confrontation with the rebels, our comrades in arms, pilots, died. They did not flinch and honorably fulfilled their military duty. I ask you to honor their memory with a minute of silence “said head of state.
Above all, in the face of what appeared in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of the Russians as a wavering of order, the president also made this reminder: The Ministry of Defense, the National Guard, employees of the Ministry of the Interior and special services ensured the reliable operation of the most important, strategic control centers, including defense, facilities, security of border regions , the security of the rear of our armed forces, those all the military formations which continued to fight heroically at the front at that time. We did not have to withdraw combat units from the special operation area »
Justification of what happened, but also a way of slipping that the Russian army, even in the midst of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, can perfectly well happen on the terrain of Wagner units.
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