The Moscow Times, among several other outlets, reported on Wednesday that top Russian General Sergei Surovikin has apparently been missing since Saturday – and may have been arrested in the aftermath of the aborted Wagner Group mutiny against the Defense Ministry this weekend.
Surovikin is reportedly close to the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Evgeny Prigozhin, who announced a march into Moscow on Friday night in an apparent attempt to oust Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Prigozhin made it into the strategically vital city of the Defense Ministry of Rostov-on-Don before marching towards Moscow with thousands of fighters.
On Saturday night, he abruptly announced the mutiny over as a result of a deal brokered by communist Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. At press time, Prigozhin is believed to be in Minsk and the government of strongman Vladimir Putin has agreed not to charge him with staging an armed uprising.
Surovikin was formerly in charge of Russian operations in Ukraine from October to January. Putin launched a “special operation” to oust Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February 2022 but had attempted to colonize for nearly a decade prior. Some reports, including from the U.K. Guardian, indicated that Russian officials had reason to believe Surovikin may have supported Prigozhin’s uprising prior to his disappearance.
File/In this picture taken on December 28, 2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin presents an award to Colonel General Sergei Surovikin, the commander of Russian troops in Syria, during a ceremony to bestow state awards on military personnel who fought in Syria, at the Kremlin in Moscow. (ALEXEY DRUZHININ/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed any rumors of Surovikin’s arrest on Wednesday as “gossip,” without providing any more information.
The Moscow Times quoted several anonymous sources, allegedly “close to the Defense Ministry,” on Wednesday who claimed that police had arrested Surovikin “in the context of Prigozhin.”
“Apparently, he [Surovikin] chose Prigozhin’s side during the uprising, and they’ve gotten him by the balls,” one of the anonymous people allegedly said.
The Guardian similarly reported “rumours” that Surovikin had supported the Wagner uprising internally – defying repeated Russian government claims that absolutely no one in Russia sympathized with Prigozhin’s cause – prior to his disappearance. The rumors, fueled by journalists and bloggers on the encrypted communications application Telegram, claim that Surovikin’s family has not heard from him since this weekend and that he is believed to be in Russian government custody.
The evidence against this theory is the fact that Surovikin published a statement condemning the mutiny on Saturday.
“We fought together with you, took risks, we won together,” Surovikin reportedly said, referring to Prigozhin, according to a Guardian translation. “We are of the same blood, we are warriors. I urge you to stop. The enemy is just waiting for the internal political situation to escalate in our country.”
The Argentine news outlet Infobae, which also reported that Surovikin was missing on Thursday, described the general’s statement against the revolt as “one of those messages they make hostages record” and described Surovikin as “appearing drunk.”
“Before the riot ended with Prigozhin’s exist towards exile in Belarus, Surovikin had already disappeared,” Infobae reported, citing various anonymous sources in Russian and Western media.
The Kremlin has not clarified where Surovikin is, but insisted on Wednesday that any speculation on his fate is merely “gossip.”
File/Russian General Sergei Surovikin, commander of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine is seen during a visit of Russian President to the joint staff of troops involved in Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in an undisclosed place on December 17, 2022. (GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/Sputnik/AFP via Getty)
“I think that now there will be a lot of gossip, speculation on this issue [the armed mutiny] and so on. I think this is one of such examples,” Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told reporters, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
Peskov also insisted during his regular press briefings on Wednesday that no one in Russia supported Prigozhin.
“The army and the people, everyone was by the president’s side,” Peskov insisted.
Much of Russia’s military leadership, including Defense Minister Shoigu, appeared caught by surprise by the events of Friday, in which Prigozhin announced that Shoigu had launched an attack on Wagner forces in Ukraine and was attempting to eradicate the private military contractor. Moscow has vehemently denied such an attack.
Wagner has long held close ties to Putin and worked as an informal arm of the Russian military in complex conflict zones such as Syria and Central African Republic (CAR), developing a reputation for extreme brutality.
Prigozhin had spent months criticizing Shoigu, accusing the Defense Ministry of failing to properly arm or train its fighters and embarrassing the country by not finishing the mission in Ukraine rapidly. In late May, Prigozhin warned that Russian civilians could stage a revolution against Putin if they continue to see their young men return home dead, with little security payoff for the country.
“We could fucking lose Russia,” he warned.
Even after agreeing to withdraw, in a message posted to Telegram on Monday, Prigozhin condemned Shoigu and warned Russians that the speed and the relative ease with which his fighters cut deep into Russia belied “serious security problems across the entire country.”
“We didn’t march to overthrow Russia’s leadership,” Prigozhin explained in the message. “The aim of the march was to avoid the destruction of Wagner and to hold to account the officials who, through their unprofessional actions, have committed a massive number of errors.”
He added that his march to Moscow was “a master-class on how February 24, 2022, had to look,” referring to the invasion of Ukraine.
Putin has dropped charges against Prigozhin and will reportedly not seek legal retribution against Wagner fighters involved in the uprising. In a speech on Monday, the strongman described the “overwhelming majority” of Wagner mercenaries as “Russian patriots, devoted to their people and country.” He nonetheless promised, however, that those responsible for the uprising would face “justice” for their “treason,” without elaborating.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.