A stash of cocaine was discovered in the office of the private military company Wagner Group, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Wagner’s boss, businessman Evgeny Prigozhin, died in a plane crash in August, two months after staging a short-lived failed mutiny.
“We know that… the [Federal Security Service] found not only 10 billion [rubles] in cash in the company’s [office] in St. Petersburg, but also 5 kilograms of cocaine,” Putin explained during a session of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi.
The police and security officials raided properties belonging to Wagner shortly after Prigozhin’s revolt. On June 23, Prigozhin announced that his troops would march on Moscow, but backed down the next day after reaching a deal with the authorities.
Prigozhin and several of his close associates died on August 23, when his business jet crashed in western Russia.
Speaking at the Valdai forum, Putin shared some of the findings of the investigation into the crash. “The head of the Investigative Committee has informed me recently that fragments of hand grenades were found in the victims’ bodies,” the president said. “There was no outside impact on the plane. It is now a confirmed fact.”
The president added that the remains have not yet been examined for traces of drugs and alcohol. “I believe that such an examination should be made,” he said.
Putin previously praised Wagner fighters for their role in Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. At the same time, he said in August that Prigozhin had made “serious mistakes,” and that he had deceived his own men when instigating the mutiny.