Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin visited St. Petersburg on 4 July to collect weapons that had been seized during a search of his offices, including a custom-engraved Glock that he had received from Russian defence minister Sergey Shoigu, news outlet Fontanka writes without naming its source.

Prigozhin received two Saiga rifles, an Austrian Steyr Mannlicher rifle, an ARKA semi-automatic rifle and several other guns and pistols. The transaction took place in the building of the local FSB Directorate.

Fontanka reported earlier that law enforcement returned to Prigozhin all the cash and gold bars seized during the search. According to the media outlet, 10 bln rubles (€102 mln) and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash along with five gold bars were returned to Prigozhin on the evening of 2 July. Fontanka writes that Prigozhin’s driver went to fetch the cash and valuables with a notarised authorisation permit. The Wagner chief himself was in Moscow that day.

On 23 June, Prigozhin’s offices in St. Petersburg were searched. Police officers discovered boxes filled with cash. Prigozhin soon responded to the reports, saying that the Wagner Group always pays its mercenaries and family members in cash as specified in their contracts.

On 23 June, Prigozhin and his mercenaries announced a “March of Justice” on Moscow. They captured the southern cities of Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh the next day, and started moving towards the Russian capital. Shortly thereafter, Belarusian President Alyaksandar Lukashenka said he had held negotiations with Prigozhin and talked the rebels out of their “march on Moscow”.