Putin opens probe into rebel Wagner Group leader who got $2B in gov’t funds

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said he is opening a money probe into rebellious Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose businesses received $2 billion from the government in the past year.

While the Kremlin said Prigozhin would be pardoned and exiled over his weekend attempted coup, the Russian president said officials will be scrutinizing not only Wagner’s finances but also his Concord catering company, which earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef.”

Speaking to Russian troops who faced off against Wagner over the weekend, Putin said Prigozhin’s mercenaries had been “fully financed” by the state, receiving about $1 billion from the Defense Ministry for their budget from May 2022 to May 2023.

Putin added that Prigozhin, an oligarch, secured about $1 billion in government contracts for his catering to provide food to the army, with the president suggesting that the businesses might have laundered some money.

“I do hope that, as part of this work, no one stole anything … but we will, of course, investigate all of this,” Putin said, without directly naming Prigozhin.

Despite extending pardons to the Wagner chief over his short-lived insurrection and offering Defense Ministry positions to his low-level troops, Putin’s recent remarks aimed at Prigozhin’s finances suggest Prigozhin could still find himself in trouble with the law even after arriving in Belarus in exile on Tuesday.

Prigozhin has yet to remark on the money investigation, only breaking his silence Monday to claim that his coup attempt was actually just a protest while bragging about how seamlessly his troops made it to within 120 miles of Moscow on Saturday.

The mercenary army — a key force for Russia in its war on neighboring Ukraine — turned back after a deal was brokered by Putin ally and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in which Prigozhin was granted immunity from criminal charges and exile to Belarus.

“Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today,” Lukashenko said of Prigozhin on Tuesday, according to Belta, the country’s national news agency, as reported by the Guardian.

The Belarusian dictator said he is counting on the capitulating Wagner mercenaries to provide “priceless” information in the war on Ukraine.

“If their commanders come to us and help us … They will tell us about weapons: which worked well, and which did not. And tactics … how to attack, how to defend … This is what we can get from Wagner,” Lukashenko said.

Meanwhile, Putin’s comments came after he vowed Monday that Wagner’s leadership would face retaliation over the rebellion, which was emphasized across the world as the biggest threat to Putin’s hold on Russia in 23 years.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN on Tuesday that the coup attempt was inevitable and would likely serve as a steppingstone for future challenges against Putin.

“For us, it has always been pretty obvious that it’s just a matter of time when someone in Russia will dare to challenge Putin because we saw how his power and authority is shrinking and how Russia is entering very difficult turbulence,” Kuleba said.

“So Prigozhin is just the first one who dared, but I have no doubt that others will follow one way or another.”

The Ukrainian official added that after a series of successful counterattacks by Ukraine since the short-lived rebellion, it is clear that Russia is losing the war and can only fall back on threats of nuclear missiles.

“It’s obvious that his army is [incapable] of achieving its strategic purposes in Ukraine. He realizes that his power vertical has been shattered,” Kuleba said.

“And so there’s only one last argument left in his pocket,” he added, referencing Russia’s nukes.