The forces of the Wagner paramilitary group gradually withdraw into Russia on Sunday after the failed coup attempt of their leader Evguéni Prigojine. This comes as part of an agreement with Vladimir Putin, who is emerging weakened from this unprecedented crisis.

• Also read: Mutiny in Russia: The “anti-terror regime” is still in force in Moscow

• Also read: North Korea expresses support for Russia after the Wagner paramilitary group mutiny

• Also read: Wagner Rebellion: According to Russian diplomacy, Beijing expresses its “support” for Moscow

Yevgeny Prigoyine had to leave for Belarus, the Russian presidency announced on Saturday evening, without it being known on Sunday when this departure was planned under the guise of exile or where the stormy boss Wagner was staying.

During a 24-hour attack that took his militias less than 400 km from Moscow, 200 according to him, he shook the Kremlin before turning around and, mediated by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, ordering his men to return to their bases . the only European ally of the Kremlin.

In a sign the urgency of the crisis appears to have passed, local authorities said on Sunday Wagner’s fighters left the Voronezh and Lipetsk regions south of Moscow, stages in their attempt to reach the capital.

The day before, they had left the military headquarters they were occupying in Rostov (southwest), the nerve center of operations in Ukraine, signaling the end of this mutiny to avoid “a bloodbath,” according to Yevgeny Prigozhin.

However, the “anti-terrorist regime”, which grants the police extended powers, remains in force in the Russian capital and in its region on Sunday.

Large police patrols are stationed along the road leading to the Moscow exit in the south of the capital, an AFP journalist noted. Monday will be a day off in Moscow.

This is where Wagner’s men and their tanks could have arrived if they had continued their march to retrieve the heads of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, who are accused of sacrificing tens of thousands of men in vain in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed “a solution without new casualties” to the crisis when announcing the agreement with the man who had promised a few hours earlier to “liberate the Russian people”.

The criminal case against Yevgeny Prigoyine is dropped and none of the fighters of the Wagner group, which plays a key role alongside the Russian army in Ukraine, are prosecuted, although they took up arms against the Kremlin.

“No one will persecute (the fighters) for their merits at the front,” said Ukrainian Dmitry Peskov.

The Russian authorities had never before shown such leniency, jailing opponents and anonymous critics of Vladimir Putin and his offensive against Ukraine

For an adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, “Prigoyine has humiliated Putin/the state and shown that there is no longer a monopoly on the use of force”.

“The Kremlin is now faced with a deeply unstable balance (…) The Prigoyine uprising revealed serious weaknesses,” emphasizes an analysis by the American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Exceptional scene on Saturday night in Rostov, dozens of residents showed their support for the insurgents and shouted “Wagner, Wagner!” just before the fighters left the city with their leader at the head of the convoy.

“The crisis of institutions and trust was not as obvious to most in Russia as it was in the West. Today it is clear,” notes Konstantin Kalachev, an independent Russian political scientist.

“The way the Rostov population supported Wagner’s departure speaks volumes,” he notes.

If the terms of the deal remain the subject of speculation, President Lukashenko, a close ally of Mr Putin, appears to have played a key role.

The Kremlin has expressed its “appreciation” to the Belarusian leader, usually in a relationship almost entirely dependent on Moscow.

Facing his greatest challenge since coming to power in late 1999, President Putin had denounced a “betrayal” of those in charge of Russia’s bases, promised “punishment” and raised the specter of a “civil war”.

The events were closely monitored by Western governments. According to the Washington Post and the New York Times, the American secret services had warned the White House of an imminent Wagner uprising in Russia.

Russian diplomacy had warned Western countries against any attempt to “exploit the situation”.

And Moscow has warned that Wagner’s failed uprising will “in no way” affect the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

A Russian airstrike on Kiev killed five people in the early hours of Saturday morning, according to a report by the mayor of the Ukrainian capital updated on Sunday.

“The myth of Putin’s unity of Russia is over. “This internal escalation is dividing the Russian military alliance,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Il Messaggero newspaper.

“This is the inevitable result of supporting and funding a legion of mercenaries,” he added.

North Korea has thrown its support behind Russia, with Deputy Foreign Minister Im Chon “expressing his strong belief that the recent armed insurgency in Russia will be successfully crushed,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko in Beijing on Sunday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, without giving further details on the talks.

While the Wagner militia has played a leading role in the conflict in Ukraine, tensions with the general staff have escalated over the months.

In particular, Yevgeny Prigoyine accused him of depriving Wagner of ammunition, insulting Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, a friend of Vladimir Putin.

Millions of Americans generously donate a portion of their paychecks each year, offering to help those in need while perhaps earning a chunk of good karma.

The US charity industry is worth well over $2 trillion, but many have no idea the sector is riddled with greed, and their good intentions could line the pockets of fat CEOs instead.

According to a study by the Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting, America’s 50 worst charities passed on less than four percent of donations to their advertised recipients from 2003 to 2013.

In the same decade, six of them spent nothing at all on direct cash assistance.

From Black Lives Matter squandering their social media fortunes on a Los Angeles mansion to executives giving themselves lucrative bounty awards, these are reportedly the worst charities to give your hard-earned cash to.

Cancer Fund of America

The Cancer Fund of America achieved legendary status in the seedy fundraising business, giving less than 1 percent of the funds to its cause, according to the Times/CIR study.

In 2013, before its President James T. Reynolds was accused by the FEC of carrying out “one of the biggest charity frauds of all time,” the Cancer Fund of America was found to be among the worst offenders.

Reynolds, who also founded the now-defunct charities Cancer Support Services, Children’s Cancer Fund of America, and Breast Cancer Society, made no secret of the lucrative salaries he and his family received.

The Reynolds charity empire, in which James’ children ran several of the lucrative businesses, ensured that the family consistently took home six figures each.

James T. Reynolds, the president of the Cancer Fund of America, has been accused by the FEC of carrying out “one of the biggest charity scams of all time”.

However, like many generous charity directors, Reynolds’ charitable efforts were underpinned by for-profit fundraising, which built his empire at the expense of donations to his charities.

By hiring the services of fundraising attorneys, charities make huge sums of money through tactics like robocalling, with fundraisers then taking a huge cut, which can be as high as 80 percent.

This tactic enabled the Cancer Fund of America to raise over $7.7 million in its first year in 1984. Less than 10 percent went to actual cancer patients, while the rest was distributed to the Tampa Bay fundraisers and salaries of Reynolds’ family, according to the Times.

According to the Times/CIR study, from 2003 to 2013, the charity spent just 0.9 percent of its funds on direct cash assistance. To date, over $80 million has been paid out to for-profit fundraisers.

During the same period, the Reynolds family earned nearly $5 million in salaries and bonuses, compared to just $890,000 spent on cancer patients.

The shocking numbers earned the charity a spot on the list of the country’s worst charities of 2013, beaten only by the infamous Kids Wish Network.

Children’s Wishes Network

While the famed children’s charity Make a Wish has garnered fans through its star-studded efforts over the years, its eponymous rival has been criticized for chasing after it.

From 2003 to 2013, just 2.5 percent of funds were spent on cash assistance, earning her a zero out of four-star rating from tracking website Charity Navigator.

The organization spent a staggering $109 million on fundraising attorneys over the same period, according to the Times/CIR study. These funds are used for services including extensive cold calling operations. An additional $4.8 million went towards paying the charity’s founder and his affiliated companies.

Last year, over $499 billion was donated to charities across America — meaning if every organization were run the same way Kids Wish Network was run, just over $12 billion in donations would be allocated to their intended causes.

Former Kids Wish Network employees have criticized it as “more of a money, money, money business than a children’s organization.”

Former employees have spoken out against the company, claiming it takes advantage of sick and dying children for profit and then misleads people about what their money is being spent on.

They said about 70 “wishes” are granted to sick children every year, but the millions donated by the public are far from necessary to meet their needs.

Former employee Rhonda Erlo told the Tampa Bay Times she wasn’t surprised the company ended up at the top of the list of worst charities in America, and said people should look elsewhere for donations.

“I realized this was more of a money, money, money business than a children’s organization,” she said.

“There are better organizations that people can give their money to.”

Black Lives Matter

As of October 2020, Black Lives Matter was still struggling with the national attention it received following the killing of George Floyd.

Millions flocked from around the world as protests and demonstrations brought issues surrounding racism to the fore. But what happened to those millions has infuriated fans and the flow of money into BLM’s coffers has dropped dramatically. Donations fell 88 percent between 2021 and 2022, from $77 million to just $9.3 million last fiscal year.

Patrisse Cullors co-founded the movement in 2013 before stepping down in 2021. The organization is also at risk of bankruptcy after its finances plunged $8.5 million into the red last year while paying seven-figure salaries to several employees.

Financial disclosures obtained by The Washington Free Beacon reveal the perilous state of the BLM’s Global Network Foundation, which was formally established in November 2020 as a more formal way of structuring the civil rights movement.

But despite the financial controversy and scrutiny, BLM GNF continued to hire relatives of Cullors and several board members.

Cullors, 39, was expected to produce shows across the company’s various revenue streams, including animated films, children’s films, and scripted and unscripted shows.

Black Lives Matter sparked backlash after it was revealed the organization had used donations to fund a $6 million Southern California mansion (pictured).

The property’s patio and courtyard features an in-ground pool and cabana

Cullors’ brother Paul Cullors founded two companies in 2022 that received $1.6 million to provide “professional security services” for Black Lives Matter.

Paul was also one of BLM’s only two paid employees during the year, earning $126,000 as a “head of security” in addition to his consulting fees. He is best known as a graffiti artist with no experience in the security field.

Cullors defended his stance, saying registered security firms that hire ex-police officers cannot be trusted given opposition from the movement against police brutality.

For the previous year, 2021, tax returns revealed that BLM paid a company owned by Damon Turner, the father of Cullors’ child, nearly $970,000 to help with “producing live events” and providing other “creative… Services” to help.

“While Patrisse Cullors was forced to resign amid allegations of using BLM funds for her personal use, it appears she is still keeping it all in the family,” said Paul Kamenar, a lawyer for the watchdog group of the National Legal and Policy Center.

A consulting firm led by BLM Board Member Shalomyah Bowers received $2.1 million to provide operational support to the organization. Bowers said the last BLM board approved the deal with his firm before he was a board member.

The filing also revealed that Cullors reimbursed BLM $73,000 for a charter flight and paid the foundation $390 for private use of their $6 million Los Angeles mansion.

Bowers, who succeeded Cullors after her retirement, also benefited significantly from the group: In 2022, his consulting firm received $1.7 million for management and consulting services, Free Beacon reported.

And the sister of former Black Lives Matter board member Raymond Howard has also been employed in a lucrative role as a consultant.

According to Free Beacon, the firm received $1.1 million in consulting services from Danielle Edwards, New Impact Partners, in 2022.

BLM GNF also agreed to pay an additional $600,000 to the consulting firm of an unidentified former board member “in connection with a contractual dispute.”

The nonprofit group posted an $8.5 million deficit and its investment accounts lost nearly $10 million in value last fiscal year, according to financial disclosures.

The group posted a loss of $961,000 on a $172,000 security sale, indicating the group suffered an 85 percent loss on the transaction. Further details on this security were not disclosed.

A year later, in May 2022, it was revealed that Black Lives Matter had spent more than $12 million on luxury properties in Los Angeles and Toronto – including a $6.3 million 10,000-square-foot mansion in Canada that was acquired under an $8 million program “Foreign Scholarship.”

The Toronto property was purchased with grant money earmarked for “activities to educate and support black communities, as well as property purchases and renovations for charity.”

The group had announced that it would use the property as its Canadian headquarters, and it was now called the Wilseed Center for Arts and Activism.

The leaders of the movement, with funds from benefactors, invested nearly $6 million in a luxury mansion near Los Angeles.

Set on a manicured three-quarter acre lot, the property features a pool, tree-lined garden, outdoor fireplace, “butler’s pantry,” own miniature film studio, 24 parking spaces, and two separate guest houses adjacent to the main house.

Earlier in the year, also revealed that the group squandered $12.7 million on “professional fees,” according to its August 2020 application for tax exemption and nonprofit status. However, none of those reports included a record of the $6 million home purchase made months earlier.

In pushing for the odd purchase, BLM chief Patrisse Cullors slammed her spending spree, which she described as “racist and sexist.”

In response to the backlash, the group said, “There have been many questions about recent reports of the purchase of Creator’s House in California.” “Despite previous efforts, BLMGNF recognizes there is still work to be done to increase and ensure transparency that transitions in leadership are clear.”

BLM then blamed the media for the uproar and the “inflammatory and speculative” reports in which journalists examined the group’s financials and said they “did damage”.

The reports “do not reflect the whole of the movement,” the organization claimed.

Firefighters Charity Foundation

The Firefighter’s Charitable Foundation was established in 1991 to help families affected by fires and natural disasters.

In the three decades since, however, the company has faced allegations of financial mismanagement.

According to the Times/CRI study, the charity also received a zero-star rating from Charity Navigator and invested more than $54 million in fundraising advocates over a decade, but only donated 8.4 percent of its funds to actual fire victims.

The reason charities use for-profit fundraising is to raise as much as possible from potential benefactors. However, this practice has been criticized for lining executives’ pockets while deceiving donors.

“Some charities assume that if they raise $1 million by hiring a professional fundraiser and only keep $250,000 of it after paying the fundraiser’s fees, that $250,000 is what they wouldn’t otherwise have collected.” But that logic is unfair to donors, who don’t see this waste in the same way,” CharityWatch chief executive Laurie Stryon told .

The Firefighters Charity Foundation

“Charities should respect the intentions of donors by keeping their overheads reasonable.” A charity may legitimately use a for-profit, professional fundraising firm to supplement its other fundraising efforts or to build its membership base when it’s just starting out .

“But some charities rely on these companies year after year and never develop other, more efficient ways to raise funds.”

“They continue to pay 80% of every dollar they raise to these companies. It’s such a waste. In some cases, a charity’s only programs consist of “educational” information that they include in their direct mail donation letters or telemarketing calls.

“Donors are basically just funding more fundraisers and nothing else when they donate.”

Receive free updates on Greek politics

We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email every morning with the latest Greek political news.

Greek leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his centre-right New Democracy party won Sunday’s elections in a landslide victory and vowed to “transform Greece” in his second term.

After more than half of the votes were counted, the New Democracy Party won 40.5 percent of the vote, enough to govern without a coalition partner. The main opposition party, the left-wing Syriza, achieved 17.8 percent and the centre-left Pasok party came third with 12.1 percent.

“Our goals are high and must be high in a second term that can transform Greece,” Mitsotakis said on Sunday after the first results were announced. “We have both the plan and the experience to make all of this a reality,” he said. He pledged to fight inequality, improve public services and healthcare, and speed up digitization.

The Sunday elections came after New Democracy took first place in May but failed to secure an outright majority. Mitsotakis then resigned, knowing that the snap elections would be held on the basis of a new electoral law giving bonus seats to the leading party – a calculation that would be enough to form a government without coalition partners.

“Mitsotakis is now Greece’s unique and dominant political figure, in full control of his own party and parliament,” said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group. He said Mitsotakis’ reformist agenda had a chance to be implemented as he had no partner constraints.

A Mitsotakis win had been widely expected and markets reacted positively ahead of it, with equities and bonds staging a rally in recent weeks. The credit rating is likely to be upgraded to investment grade by the end of the year, a sign that Greece is emerging from decades of economic crisis.

During his election campaign, Mitsotakis repeatedly promised to shake up the healthcare and judiciary, which are among the slowest systems in Europe. “It won’t be easy,” said Dimitris Papadimitriou, a professor of political science at Britain’s University of Manchester. “For this he will encounter the most powerful lobbies in Greece and an extremely resilient bureaucracy.”

The left-wing opposition has failed to form a unified force. “This is not too dissimilar to the situation that prevailed in Germany at its peak [Angela] “Merkel’s political dominance, during which center-left support was split between three parties,” Papadimitriou said.

The party of Alexis Tsipras, who was prime minister in 2015-19 when Greece was on the brink of financial collapse and on the verge of leaving the eurozone, shrank even further. Syriza fell more than 22 points behind the ruling party, raising questions about Tsipras’ leadership in the opposition and his future.

The new parliament will also include some fringe parties from the extreme left and right. One in three voters have opted for anti-systemic and anti-democratic parties – a sign of resentment in a part of society that Mitsotakis must take into account, Papadimitriou said.

A surprise entry into parliament is a new far-right party, the Spartans, founded in May and backed by a jailed MP from the former neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. According to analysts, the Spartans, which reached almost five percent, is a new version of the banned party – and is likely to continue to polarize society and parliament over issues such as migration.