The Wagner boss says the money – equivalent of 47.3 million dollars – was meant for his fighters.

A special police force found dozens of boxes with cash during a search in a vehicle parked near the alleged office of Yevgeny Prigozhin in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city. FSB operatives seized at least 30 cardboard boxes sized 60x40 centimeters full with 5,000-ruble banknotes on 24 June.

Fontanka.ru, whose reporters watched the operation at the scene, said the white Gazelle minibus had been near the Trezini Hotel for days and police became suspicious that it might have been packed with explosives. There is an office used by Yevgeny Prigozhin in the hotel and the law enforcements raided it in connection with the failed mutiny of the Wagner fighters later last week. 

The authorities said that the boxes contained around 4 billion Russian rubles (47.3 million US dollars) and were investigating the origin of this money.

Prigozhin claimed via the Telegram messenger on the same day that the money was his and it actually was meant for his fighters.

“They have found more than one Gazelle. A Gazelle and two small buses, which carried stacks of money for salaries [for Wagner fighters] and compensations for the wounded, and for other purposes. [..] I see nothing wrong with that,” he explained.

So far, the authorities have not confirmed whether Prigozhin’s claims are legitimate or whether he would get the money back.

A large Wagner force including tanks and armored vehicles marched from Rostov-on-Don towards Moscow on 23 June over fears that the entire army of mercenaries would be disbanded. They stopped 200 kilometers south of the capital after Prigozhin ordered a U-turn in order “to avoid Russian bloodshed.”

The city of Rostov was taken under the Wagner’s control.

Is it all about the money?

Many speculations in the press and social media around the rebellion and millions of dollars derive from either of two theories. One says that Prigozhin’s decision to march was motivated financially – he demanded to be paid for his war services and President Vladimir Putin first refused. And the second is that he intended to organize a show of force and assess his chances of building a political career; FSB in turn frames the Wagner and their leader in a money-laundering scheme.

President Putin in his first public reaction called the Wagner “traitors” but when the mutiny was over pardoned the fighters.

The Wagner private army counts between 20,000 and 35,000 mercenaries, many of whom are retired professional military. Yevgeny Prigozhin is a close ally of President Putin, and yet he has repeatedly criticized the Kremlin and Defense Ministry for corruption and incompetence in the war in Ukraine.