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The most senior generals in Russia have vanished from public view after a bungled mercenary rebellion that was meant to remove the top brass. There have been unsubstantiated reports of at least one arrest as President Vladimir Putin tries to reassert control.
Since the attempted mutiny on Saturday, when mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin demanded Valery Gerasimov’s surrender, the top general of Russia has not appeared in public or on official television.
Since June 9, he has also not been referenced in a news release from the defence ministry.
Gerasimov, 67, is in charge of Russia’s war in Ukraine and is said to be in possession of one of the country’s three “nuclear briefcases,” according to some military analysts in the West.
General Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine and dubbed “General Armageddon” by the Russian press for his strong strategies in the Syrian crisis, is also hidden from view.
According to a New York Times report based on a U.S. intelligence briefing, he was aware of the revolt in advance and that Russian authorities were investigating him to see if he was involved.
The Kremlin downplayed the news on Wednesday, claiming that there had been and would continue to be a lot of rumours and speculating.
Surovikin was detained, according to the Russian-language edition of the Moscow Times and a military blogger, while other military correspondents with significant Russian audiences claimed that he and other senior commanders were being interrogated about their potential involvement in the rebellion.
Reuters was unable to ascertain whether Surovikin had been detained.
A purge was reportedly under progress, according to Rybar, a well-known Telegram channel managed by a former press officer for the Russian army ministry.
In light of certain allegations that some members of the armed services appear to have done nothing to halt Wagner fighters in the early stages of the insurrection, he said that the authorities were aiming to purge military personnel believed to have displayed “a lack of decisiveness” in putting down the mutiny.
Rybar said that a widespread purging inside the Russian violent Forces has been justified by the Wagner private military company’s violent insurgency.
If true, such a move might change how Russia fights its “special military operation” in Ukraine and create discord among the troops just when Moscow is attempting to thwart a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Additionally, it might strengthen or advance the standing of other respected top military and security professionals.
The defence ministry made no public remarks about what was happening.
Success And Failure
Some military and political observers in Russia and the West think that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, a longtime Putin friend who Prigozhin sought to remove from office with Gerasimov due to his alleged inefficiency, may actually be safer in his position right now.
Michael Kofman, a Russian military expert at the Carnegie Endowment think tank, posted on Twitter, “I think he (Prigozhin) actually expected something would be done about Shoigu and Gerasimov, that Putin would rule in his favour.”
Instead, his rebellion may have secured their ongoing employment despite being widely despised and universally known as useless in the Russian Federation’s military forces.
After stating in public that his men were prepared to “stand to the death” to defend Moscow from Wagner, Viktor Zolotov, the head of the National Guard and formerly Putin’s bodyguard, appears to be another benefactor.
Following the revolt, Putin has mentioned the prospect of arming his troops with heavier weapons and tanks.
In stark contrast to Shoigu, who has since made multiple public appearances, Gerasimov was conspicuously absent when Putin on Tuesday congratulated the army for preventing a civil war.
In a video he appeared in on Saturday, Surovikin, Gerasimov’s deputy, pleaded with Prigozhin to put an end to his rebellion. He appeared worn out, and whether he was under compulsion to speak was unknown.
On Wednesday evening, there were unconfirmed allegations in the Russian media and blogs that Surovikin was being detained in Lefortovo, a detention facility in Moscow, following his arrest.
A well-connected writer named Alexei Venediktov said – without naming his sources – that Surovikin had stopped communicating with his family since Saturday and that his bodyguards had also stopped speaking.
Prigozhin, who had spent months denouncing Shoigu and Gerasimov for their alleged incapacity in the Ukraine war, had regularly complimented Surovikin, who is well-regarded in the military for his expertise in Chechnya and Syria.
Both certain Ukrainian military units and Western military analysts view Surovikin, who served briefly as the war’s overall commander before Gerasimov was chosen to assume control, as a skilled operator.
As a prospective future defence minister, he has been mentioned by Russian war correspondents.
