Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise announcement for his former “chef” Yevgeny Prigozhin on Tuesday afternoon, saying Russian authorities would investigate Concordia, a catering company owned by Wagner’s mercenary boss, Reuters reported.

Yevgeny Prigozhin (left) with Putin in 2011Photo: Misha Japaridze / Associated Press / Profimedia Images

The head of the Kremlin said that the investigation will be started after it is established that Prigozhin received almost two billion rubles from the Russian state last year.

On Saturday morning, Putin compared the mutiny of Wagner’s mercenaries to the war-related unrest caused by the Bolsheviks in 1917 and then to the civil war, vowing that it would be suppressed.

But a few hours later, the Kremlin announced that Prigozhin and the mercenaries who wanted to accompany him would be allowed to leave for Belarus as part of a deal brokered by Alexander Lukashenko. At that time, President Putin’s administration also announced that the criminal case of armed rebellion opened against the group of Wagner and Prigozhin would be closed.

Speaking to a group of Russian soldiers invited to the Kremlin on Tuesday afternoon to be honored for defeating the insurgency, Putin said he respected Wagner’s fighters but that Prigozhin’s group was in fact “fully funded” by the Russian state budget.

Putin takes his former “cook” for nothing

The Russian president said that from May 2022 to May 2023, Wagner’s group received 86 billion rubles ($1 billion), this amount was allocated by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Putin added that Prigozhin’s catering company Concordia received government contracts worth 80 billion rubles to supply food to the Russian military. Concordia also served the Kremlin for many years, earning Prigozhin the nickname “Putin’s cook”.

“I hope that during this work no one stole anything or, let’s say, stole less. But, of course, we will investigate all these things,” Vladimir Putin said.

His comments came after Russia’s Federal Security Service said earlier on Tuesday that it had officially dropped charges of armed rebellion in a criminal case brought shortly after the rebellion began.

Also on Tuesday afternoon, Belarusian dictator Oleksandr Lukashenko confirmed that Prigozhin had arrived on the territory of his country after several days during which the whereabouts of mercenary leader Wagner remained unknown.

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