Wagner’s mercenary group was fully funded by the Russian state, which spent 86 billion rubles ($1 billion) on it between May 2022 and May 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

In addition, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led the group’s short-lived uprising last Saturday, earned almost as much over the same period from his food and catering business, Putin said at a meeting with security forces.

Putin praised members of Russia’s military and security forces at a ceremony on Tuesday as he sought to reassert his power after a failed mercenary uprising led by Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Boss Wagner seems to have come to Belarus

The plane linked to Prigozhin arrived in Belarus from Russia three days after he abruptly ended his rebellion and Russian authorities dropped their criminal case against Wagner, fulfilling one of the terms of a deal reached Saturday night that defused the crisis.

Details of his trip to exile have not been made public, and there has been no confirmation of his whereabouts in the three days since the uprising, including whether he was on the plane that arrived in Belarus on Tuesday morning

Putin told an estimated 2,500 security personnel gathered in a square on the grounds of the Kremlin on Tuesday that the people and the armed forces were united in the fight against the rebels.

He was accompanied by Minister of Defense Serhiy Shoigu, whose release was one of the main demands of the rebels. Putin also called for a moment of silence for Russian military pilots who died during the uprising.

Who is Evgeny Prigozhin?

With aggressive PR, profanity and frequent presence on the front lines, Prigozhin was one of the most visible figures of the war, recruiting tens of thousands of Russian prisoners to fight for Wagner and openly clashing with the Ministry of Defense over military plans and munitions supplies.

Prigozhin, 62, was known for decades as “Putin’s chef” thanks to his company’s catering contracts with the Kremlin. It is not known how close they were to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but they were both born and raised in St. Petersburg.

After a long imprisonment in the 1980s, Prigozhin began selling hot dogs in his hometown. He soon began investing in a supermarket chain and eventually opened his own restaurant and catering company.

His restaurant gained a reputation for its exquisite cuisine and hosted high-ranking guests of the city, including the then deputy mayor, Vladimir Putin.

Since then, Prigozhin’s catering company “Concord” began to receive government orders, taking its activities to another level.

Last September, Prigozhin admitted that he founded a private military group in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It was his first public confirmation of the relationship, which he previously denied and for which he sued journalists.

Wagner’s group has fought in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic and Mali, among other countries. The group also provided support to Russian-backed militants who seized part of Donbas in eastern Ukraine in 2014.