The death of Wagner’s boss still has not been confirmed by the Russian governmentbut the Kremlin has denied ordering his murder. Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, declared that accusations that the Kremlin gave the order to kill Prigozhin are “a complete lie.”
“In addressing this issue, it is necessary to rely on the facts. There are not many facts yet. It is necessary to determine them in the course of the investigation,” Peskov said.
The United States and officials from some Western countries have pointed out that preliminary data from their intelligence services suggest that an explosion brought down the plane in which Prigozhin was listed as a passenger, killing all 10 people on board. The detonation could have been caused by a bomb or other device placed on the plane, although other theories, such as adulterated fuel, are also being explored.
The presidential spokesman added that he could not say anything about the wagner future, recalling that Wagner has no formal legal existence in Russia, while acknowledging that he has made a “great contribution” to Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine. He assured that Putin had not recently met with Prigozhin and even denied, contrary to what the Russian president had recently pointed out, that Wagner had state funding. It was when a journalist asked Peskov if Wagner would continue to receive Russian money by being registered in Belarus. “There was no government funding. This has nothing to do with being in Belarus, this is a completely different issue.”
But this summer, after the Prigozhin-led mutiny, Putin said the mercenaries had been “fully financed” by the Russian authorities. He assured that from May 2022 to May 2023 they received more than 86,000 million rubles, about 840,000 euros in their current exchange rate, from the state budget.