Sergei Surovikin, Russia’s “General Armageddon,” has vanished from public view after the Wagner Group’s aborted weekend mutiny — amid reports he has been detained over a rumored role in the insurrection.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov was noncommittal Wednesday when asked by reporters about the claims. “There are many different speculations, allegations, and so on about those events,” he said. “I think this is one of such examples.”
Surovikin, Russia’s former commander of the war in Ukraine, hasn’t been seen since Saturday, with a Moscow Times story late Tuesday saying he has been arrested after reports circulated that he knew in advance about Yevgeny Prigozhin’s planned insurrection which President Vladimir Putin said brought Russia to the brink of a civil war.
The Financial Times has since reported that Surovkin, who commands Russia’s air force, has been detained, citing three people familiar with the matter.
In quotes that are being widely republished in Russian state media, Surovikin’s second in command, Colonel General Andrei Yudin, denied he and his boss were in detention and told the Ura newspaper: “I’m on vacation. At home.”
But Surovikin himself has yet to surface.
Russian military blogger Vladimir Romanov was the first to report Surovikin had been arrested on June 25, on suspicion that he had sided with Prigozhin in his schism with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov — the man who replaced Surovikin as head of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The speed at which Wagner forces were able to take swathes of territory across southern Russia during their brief rebellion last weekend has given rise to speculation that senior regime figures were unable or unwilling to stop them. A number of Moscow’s top brass have developed close links to Prigozhin and his men, with Putin himself admitting the state trusted the mercenary group enough to plow significant funds and resources into it.
