Russia military seized Wagner chief money stufoxed in in vans

Russian media outlet Fontaka reported that the boxes, pulled from a Gazel mini-van, contain a total of 4 billion roubles (about A$71.5 million).

The outlet reported security forces unloaded he “brown cardboard office boxes”, placing at least eight on the ground outside the mini-van.

Some were open and clearly “filled with bundles of Russian banknotes, mostly red, similar to five thousandths”. There were reportedly still several rows of similar boxes inside the mini-van.

According to Fontanka, the white Gazel drew attention during a search of the Trezzini Hotel in St Petersburg, which is believed to be the office of Yevgeny Prigozhin – the head of the Wagner Private Military Company who staged a rebellion against the Russian army at the weekend, but has since fled the country.

It is understood the van aroused suspicion because it did not belong to anyone living on Akademichesky Lane, where it was parked.

The van was checked for explosives and when it was unlocked, officers found boxes stuffed with money.

After news of the bizarre find broke, Prigozhin issued a statement taking ownership of the Gazel van, but said two other vehicles containing money and “other things” were raided.

“It wasn’t just the Gazel that was found, but two other minibuses that contained money earmarked for wages, compensation for Cargo 200s [unofficial code for bodies of fighters killed in action], and other things,” Prigozhin said in a statement to Telegram, Yahoo! reports.

He also said during its 10 years of operating, Wagner Group had always used cash for all payments.

On Friday, local time, Prigozhin vowed to topple the Russian military leadership, furious that his mercenary soldiers had, according to him, been bombed by the military.

It sparked the biggest political crisis the country has faced in decades.

Prigozhin and 25,000 of his troops launched a rebellion, seizing control of the key Russian city of Rostov. They were reportedly streaming towards Moscow when President Vladimir Putin made an emergency televised broadcast raging at the “internal treachery”.

But the coup was called off at the eleventh hour after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, brokered an end to the crisis.

The deal meant Prigozhin would leave Russia for exile in Belarus and neither he nor his mercenary troops would face charges.

But the leader was last seen in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where Wagner’s small army had taken over, taking selfies with fans.

He is yet to show up in Belarus and has fallen mysteriously silent since the deal was struck and he ordered his men to stand down to avoid “bloodshed”.

Russian officials said houses and roads in the south had been damaged as a result of the Wagner forces’ coup, AFP reports.

In Rostov-on-Don some 10,000 square meters of roads have been damaged by tank tracks, mayor Alexei Logvinenko said in a statement on social media.

An official in the southern region of Voronezh, Maksim Yantsov, said 19 houses had been damaged in the village of Yelizavetovka as a result of a firefight involving Wagner forces.

At the weekend, Voronezh authorities reported a massive fire at an oil depot that apparently broke out as a result of the Wagner march. The governor, Alexander Gusev, did not mention its consequences in a post on Sunday.

Russian authorities did not report any human losses, even though Wagner claimed to have shot down several aircraft.

On Sunday, an official in the southern region of Voronezh, Maksim Yantsov, said 19 houses had been damaged in the village of Yelizavetovka as a result of a firefight involving Wagner forces.

The mutiny was the culmination of Prigozhin’s longstanding feud with the Russian military’s top brass over the conduct of the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

– with AFP.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has confirmed Russian security forces found boxes full of money stashed in a mini-van near his offices.