The Kremlin on Thursday refused to answer questions about General Sergei Surovikin, whose status and location have not been made public since Saturday’s failed mutiny. Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov referred questions about Surovikin to the Defense Ministry, which has so far not made any statement about him: what he is doing, whether he is free, whether he continues to hold office or whether he is being investigated. Meanwhile, from the Russian Parliament, a Defense spokesman announced that Wagner would not continue fighting in Ukraine as a mercenary group, since he has not wanted to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense. The government wants to control individual mercenaries, also in Ukraine.
Dubbed “General Armageddon” by the Russian press for his cruel methods against civilians in Syria, Surovikin, who is the deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, has been absent since Saturday, when he appeared in a video appealing to the leader. of Wagner’s mercenaries, Evgeny Prigozhin, to stop their mutiny.
On the recording he looked strange. He looked uncomfortable and was breathing hard. Speaking on camera without insignia, he urged the head of the Wagner Group mercenaries to surrender. To some experts, it was not clear if he was speaking under duress. Since then various sources in Russia have indicated that the security services are interrogating him and even that he was or had been detained. The government did not want to confirm or deny this.
‘The New York Times’, based on a US intelligence report, said that Surovikin had prior knowledge of the riot and that the authorities were verifying whether he was complicit. He is considered one of the closest generals to Wagner. Last year, Prigozhin, a fierce critic of Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, praised Surovikin as “a man who is not afraid of responsibility.” A month ago, Prigozhin said that Surovikin should replace Gerasimov.
The Moscow Times newspaper and a military blogger reported Surovikin’s arrest yesterday, while other defense analysts said he and other senior officers were being questioned by the FSB’s security service to verify their loyalty.
Peskov said he had no information on Prigozhin’s whereabouts at this time. Asked if Surovikin still had Putin’s trust, Peskov said that Putin, as commander-in-chief of Russia’s armed forces, works with the defense minister and the chief of the general staff: both are Prigozhin’s main enemies. Asked by reporters if the Kremlin could clarify the situation with Surovikin, Peskov said: “No, unfortunately not.”
Surovikin is one of Russia’s most respected generals who previously commanded Russian forces in Ukraine for several months. His daughter denied this Thursday the arrest of his father for his alleged relationship with the Wagner group mutiny last weekend
Wagner’s fighters will no longer fight in the Ukraine. The head of this group of mercenaries has refused to sign contracts with the Kremlin, according to the head of the Duma defense committee, Andrei Kartapolov. Wagner’s combatants will be able to do so by fighting individually by signing a contract with the Defense or with a security force deployed in the area.
Kartapolov recalled that a few days before the attempted rebellion, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that starting in July “all [groups] carrying out combat missions must sign a contract” with the ministry. According to Kartapolov, Prigozhin did not sign the contracts and was informed that “Wagner would not take part in the special military operation.” “No funds or material resources are going to be allocated,” added the deputy in statements collected by the Tass news agency.
The head of the Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), Kirilo Budanov, assured today that the mercenaries of the Wagner group remain in their base in Lugansk, in occupied Ukraine, but without participating in the hostilities.
Moscow wants to gain full control of the private Wagner mercenary group, whose operations in the Middle East and Africa are financed by the Kremlin. After the failed rebellion of Prigozhin, who has gone into exile in Belarus, it seems that the Russian government wants to go from being a client to a majority shareholder of this group without its own legal profile.
For years, the group has worked as a security force for autocratic regimes in the Middle East and Africa. Now, with Prigozhin in exile, unrest has spread to Syria, the Central African Republic, Mali and other countries where the Wagners operate. Moscow wants to assure the authorities of those countries that the Wagner Group will continue to function normally in them, but it will no longer do so independently but managed by the Kremlin, reported the newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’.
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