The criminal investigation instigated by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) into the suspected armed mutiny by the private military company (PMC) Wagner has been halted, according to a statement from the FSB’s Public Relations Centre.
Initiated on June 23, the investigation was conducted under Article 279 of the Russian Criminal Code, relating to armed insurrection.
The FSB has revealed that their decision to discontinue the case stems from the finding that the implicated individuals ceased their actions with direct intent towards committing the crime on June 24.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of PMC Wagner, publicly stated on his Telegram channel on the evening of June 23 that his units had suffered an attack.
He pointed fingers at Russia’s military leadership, a claim that was later discredited as unfounded by the Defense Ministry.
Subsequently, some of the PMC Wagner units decided to align with Prigozhin and began to advance towards Rostov-on-Don and Moscow.
This resulted in the FSB launching a criminal investigation over the alleged call for armed mutiny.
Labeling PMC Wagner’s actions as treason, Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced his disapproval during a television broadcast.
In an interesting turn of events, Prigozhin was given an opportunity to negotiate with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, at the behest of President Putin.
Following these discussions, PMC Wagner’s forces halted their advance and retreated to their field camps.
The Kremlin subsequently declared that the charges against Prigozhin would be dropped, and he would be permitted to relocate to Belarus.
The Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov offered a final clarification, indicating that the PMC personnel involved in the insurrection would not be prosecuted, due to their noteworthy contributions on the frontline.
“Taking into account this and other circumstances relevant to the investigation, the investigative authority issued a resolution to terminate the criminal case on June 27,” the FSB’s public relations center confirmed.
Meanwhile, Putin has confirmed that Wagner is fully financed by the Russian government.
Russian media has reported that Wagner’s owner, the Concord company, received 80 billion rubles (roughly $940 million) in State funding in one year.
“I want to note and I want everyone to know that the financing of the entire Wagner group was fully ensured by the state,” Putin said. “We fully financed this group from the Defense Ministry, from the state budget.”
From May 2022 to May 2023, the state alone allocated 86.2 billion rubles ($1 billion) to Wagner in the form of salary to fighters and incentive rewards.
“Of that amount, remuneration equaled 70.38 bln [rubles], incentive rewards amounted to 15.87 bln [rubles], insurance payments totaled 110.17 bln [rubles],” Putin stated.
“The state fully ensured the financing [of Wagner], whereas a portion of that group, this Concord company, earned 80 bln rubles during the same period,” he added. “Hopefully, nobody stole anything during these activities or, let’s say, stole less.”
“We will obviously look into all this,” he emphasized.
