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Wagner PMC formally non-existent, Putin says — media

The president explained that Russia has no law on private military companies and, therefore, "there is no such legal entity"

Russian President Vladimir Putin Alexander Kazakov/TASS

Russian President Vladimir Putin

© Alexander Kazakov/TASS

MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. Legalizing private military companies is a complicated issue that should be handled by the government and the parliament, because formally companies such as Wagner PMC are non-existent in Russia at this point, Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying.

Kommersant’s special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov quoted the Russian president as saying in response to a question about the organization’s future that, from the point of view of the Russian legislation, "Wagner PMC does not exist."

The president explained that Russia has no law on private military companies and, therefore, "there is no such legal entity."

"The [Wagner] Group exists, but it is judicially non-existent," the report quotes Putin as saying. "The formal legalization is a separate issue that should be addressed by the State Duma [the lower chamber of the Russian parliament] and the government. It’s a complicated issue."

The president believes that the Wagner Group controversy "is very simple and clear for [members of] the Russian society."

"Wagner’s ordinary members were fighting with dignity… so it is very regrettable that they became embroiled into these events," Putin added.

On Thursday, the Russian president took part in the plenary session of the Future Technologies Forum. After the event was over, he had a conversation with Russian journalists. Excerpts of the talk, where the issue of Ukraine, NATO and the grain deal were raised, were published by the Kremlin website and aired by the Rosssiya-24 television channel.

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