‘Massive purge’: general Sergei Surovikin arrested over Wagner rebellion
Two of Russia’s top generals haven’t been seen in public since the Wagner rebellion, as Putin warns he’s escalating repression amid rumours Prigozhin ally Sergei Surovikin has been arrested.
Two of Russia’s top generals have not been seen in public since an armed rebellion by the Wagner group, with speculation swirling in Moscow that at least one of them had been arrested.
Neither General Valery Gerasimov, the armed forces chief of staff, nor General Sergei Surovikin, deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, have been seen since Saturday when thousands of heavily armed Wagner mercenaries marched on Moscow.
The Moscow Times, an independent website, cited unnamed defence ministry sources who said that Surovikin had been arrested after backing Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner boss, during his failed mutiny. “Apparently, he [Surovikin] took Prigozhin’s side during the uprising, and they’ve gotten him by the balls,” one source said. The Kremlin refused to comment.
Rybar, an influential Telegram channel run by a former Russian defence ministry press officer, said a “massive purge” was under way in Moscow as the Kremlin sought to ensure the loyalty of the army.
President Putin warned state media editors during a meeting behind closed doors that the Kremlin was preparing to escalate political repression following the mutiny, according to Agentstvo, an opposition website.
Alexei Venediktov, an editor in Moscow, said that Surovikin had not been in touch with his family for three days and no one had been able to contact his bodyguards. He said, however, that rumours that the general was being held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison were untrue. However, he claimed that Surovikin’s deputy, Colonel-General Andrei Yudin, had been dismissed.
Officials in Washington cited by The New York Times said Surovikin had prior knowledge of Prigozhin’s plans to rebel against Russia’s military leadership. The pair were allies who had worked together in Syria and Ukraine, with the Wagner leader once praising Surovikin as a “legendary figure”. However, troops under Surovikin’s air force command were the only ones to fire on the Wagner convoy as it approached the Russian capital.
Surovikin, nicknamed General Armageddon by Russian media, was also the most senior officer to make a public appearance condemning the rebellion and calling on Wagner fighters to stand down. “We fought together with you, took risks, we won together,” Surovikin said in a video appeal to Prigozhin. “We are of the same blood, we are warriors.” There is speculation that he may have recorded the video under duress.
Baza, a media outlet with links to the security forces, published an audio recording yesterday (Thursday) which it said was an interview with one of Surovikin’s daughters. The woman, identified as Veronika, said “everything was OK” with her father and that it was not unusual for him to remain out of the public eye for a number of days. She said she was in touch with him. His wife declined to comment, Baza said.
A former Kremlin adviser urged the administration to show Surovikin to the public to quash speculation that Prigozhin’s revolt was part of a “wide-ranging conspiracy” against Putin. “Show everyone Surovikin! Don’t delay. Otherwise, many will think that mass, but secret, arrests have begun,” Sergei Markov wrote on Telegram.
Putin went on a rare public walkabout in southern Russia. He shook hands with wellwishers and even kissed some of them on the cheek during a trip to Dagestan, a mainly Muslim region 1,200 miles south of Moscow. “Where else is the national leader greeted like this?” said Olga Skabeyeva, a state TV presenter. “Even rock stars have nothing on him!” Putin told a local official that he had “no doubt” that people supported him during the rebellion.
Wagner fighters were applauded and hugged by residents of Rostov-on-Don, the Russian city that they seized on Saturday. However, Prigozhin’s approval ratings fell from 58 per cent before his “march on Moscow,” to just 29 per cent this week, according to a survey by the Levada Centre, an independent pollster that has been designated a foreign agent by the Kremlin.
Putin has not mingled with ordinary people since before the pandemic and is notoriously cautious about his health. There were allegations that the Kremlin had used a body double for the trip.
After returning to Moscow, the president visited a hi-tech centre, where he drew a smiley face with big ears on an electronic screen. His effort was greeted with applause by officials.
US officials are also trying to establish whether any senior figures in the Russian military establishment supported Prigozhin’s capture of Rostov-on-Don. The ease with which Wagner took the Russian military hub suggested that regular army officers had been complicit in the original plan, western intelligence officials told The Wall Street Journal.
Surovikin’s arrest or dismissal could be more damaging for Russia’s war in Ukraine than the Wagner rebellion, some analysts said. “Surovikin [is] a brute but also one of the more capable Russian commanders,” Lawrence Freedman, a professor of war studies at King’s College London, tweeted.
Prigozhin’s exact whereabouts are also unknown. He and fighters were allowed free passage to Belarus in return for calling off their mutiny and his business jet flew into Minsk early on Tuesday. The Wagner chief’s refusal to place his fighters under the control of the defence ministry means that the mercenary group will no longer be able to operate in Ukraine, a senior MP said. “Material resources will not be allocated,” said Andrey Kartapolov, a retired general who heads the Russian parliament’s defence committee.
The Times
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