Putin Deal Hands Wagner's Prigozhin $111M Cash, Gold Bars: Russian Media

Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin has reportedly won back more than $100 million in cash and gold bars seized by Russian authorities in the midst of his short-lived June insurrection, as the oligarch-warlord continues negotiations with the Kremlin as to the stripping of his assets and his enforced exile in Belarus.

St. Petersburg news outlet Fontanka reported Tuesday—citing undisclosed internal sources—that around 10 billion rubles ($111.2 million) made up of boxes of U.S. dollars and five gold bars were returned to the disgraced oligarch, who last month led a Wagner Group mutiny against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chair of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

The assets were confiscated by Russian authorities in raids on properties linked to Prigozhin on June 24, the day after Wagner Group fighters seized control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and a column set out towards Moscow.

The group briefly threatened to storm the capital until Prigozhin reached a deal with the Kremlin—facilitated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko—to abandon the mutiny and go into exile in Belarus. In exchange, Russian authorities are not pursuing criminal charges related to actions initially described as "treason" by President Vladimir Putin.

The seized assets reportedly weighed "a couple of tons" and were returned to Prigozhin's driver, who had been granted power of attorney, on July 2. Criminal investigators did not wish to relinquish the funds, but Fontanka reported that "judging by yet another reversal, a higher power intervened."

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry by email for comment.

Prigozhin said on June 24 that the money was intended to pay salaries to his Wagner fighters and compensate the families of fallen troops. St. Petersburg police seized the funds in two batches: first some $47 million from a parked minivan, and second another $66.7 million stored in 80 cardboard boxes in a second van.

Western officials have said it remains unclear whether Prigozhin and his Wagner units will indeed go into exile in Belarus, where recent satellite imagery shows the construction of new military bases.

One Latvian diplomat who spoke with Newsweek on the condition of anonymity said NATO capitals are "watching and assessing" any new Wagner arrivals in Belarus, preparing to respond to any deployment there with additional sanctions on Minsk.

Reports indicate that Prigozhin did leave Russia, though he has been spotted in St. Petersburg and Moscow in recent days seemingly as part of negotiations to dissolve his media empire and relinquish control of other business interests.

Moscow is working to incorporate Wagner into the regular Russian military, with fighters reportedly given the choice of contracts with the Defense Ministry or exile in Belarus. Other reports suggest that Wagner is still recruiting inside Russia, and the Pentagon has said mercenaries remain on the battlefields of Ukraine.

The Institute for the Study of War's Wednesday bulletin said Prigozhin was being absolved "of financial responsibility for damages caused by the Wagner Group rebellion" in Rostov-on-Don, which local authorities have said cost around $1 million.

Putin's refusal, or inability, to punish Prigozhin and the Wagner Group—which has so far proved Moscow's most effective combat formation in 16 months of difficult fighting in Ukraine—has prompted speculation that the president is in a precarious political position.

European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrel wrote this week that the Wagner conflagration shows that the Kremlin's quagmire in Ukraine "has weakened Vladimir Putin's regime far more than many observers had thought."

Robert Kaplan of the Foreign Policy Research Institute told Newsweek that Putin "is not acting like a normal dictator. A normal dictator would have arrested or relieved, or possibly even executed a pretender like Prigozhin months ago. Now, after calling Prigozhin a traitor, Putin has made a deal with him.

"Maybe this is because Putin desperately needs the Wagner Group. Maybe it's because Putin is unable to project-specific military and logistical power in southern Russia. Either way, it demonstrates how weakly institutionalized Putin's personalized state is, compared to that of his Soviet predecessors. A weak state means more unpredictable events lie in the future," Kaplan said.