General Sergei Surovikin arrested in Russia — The Moscow Times
Two unnamed sources in the Russian Ministry of Defence have told The Moscow Times that Russian General Sergei Surovikin has been arrested. The ministry did not comment on the information officially.
Surovikin was the deputy commander of the Russian troops during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine (until January 2023, he was the commander) and the commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
One of the newspaper's sources reports that the general probably chose to side with Yevgeny Prigozhin during the armed rebellion.
Surovikin's whereabouts are "not commented on even through internal channels" of the Ministry of Defence.
The New York Times, citing sources among US officials, wrote that Surovikin knew about Prigozhin's plans. The United States is trying to find out whether General Yevgeny Prigozhin helped plan the coup.
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote that if the Russian authorities did arrest Surovikin, the Kremlin would likely use him as a scapegoat. This is likely to be used to publicly explain why the Russian military and internal security agencies responded poorly to the rebellion and to justify potential changes in the Russian military leadership.
Earlier, ISW reported on Surovikin's alleged support for the Wagner PMC.
As a reminder, on the night of June 24, the owner of the private military company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, started an armed mutiny. He and his militants entered the territory of the Russian Federation from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.
The next day, the mercenaries seized the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don. During the mutiny, the mercenaries shot down a Russian Il-22M11 Airborne Command Post. None of the crew survived.
The self-proclaimed President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenka, held talks with Prigozhin and managed to stop the movement of PMC members through Russia.
The Wagner PMC is a Russian armed group recognised as an international criminal and terrorist organisation. Wagner mercenaries are involved in hostilities in Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, Libya and the Central African Republic.
