Rumors about the fate of this deputy of the Russian operations staff in Ukraine are piling up. He was one of the few senior army officers to benefit from the leniency of the paramilitary group’s chief.
Where is Sergey Surovikin? The fate of this high-ranking officer in the Russian army is a great mystery and rumors about him are piling up on social media. The general was notably absent during Vladimir Putin’s speech to the armed forces on Tuesday, June 27, after Wagner’s aborted march on Moscow. The fate of Sergey Surovikin, estimated by Yevgeny Prigoyine, is attracting all the more lively attention since he would have been informed about the paramilitary project in advance, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal confirmed on Wednesday. “Speculation and gossip,” the Kremlin replied.
Several media have now claimed that the general has been arrested. In reality, there is nothing that can confirm this. “My sources at the Defense Ministry and the FSB deny that Sergei Surovikin was detained,” Roman Anin, a Russian journalist and founder of Important Stories, an independent outlet, told franceinfo. “However, they confirm that he was interrogated before his release.” For its part, the Kremlin is content to appeal to the Defense Ministry. “A possible investigation does not necessarily mean that he is suspected of complicity, but that he may be aware of certain elements about Wagner,” Nuance, Russian political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya, told franceinfo.
At this point there is only one certainty. Sourovikine hasn’t appeared since Saturday morning, the day of the mutiny. With a serious and dejected expression, he then asked Wagner to break off his march towards Moscow. “Before it’s too late, we must obey the will and order of the President-elect of Russia,” he pleaded in a plain uniform, hardly to his advantage. Was this statement spontaneous or was he forced to record it? Both options are discussed by observers. The Department of Defense, which released the images, did not provide information about the location or circumstances of the shooting.
General Sergei Surovikin in a video recorded at an unspecified location and released by the Russian Ministry of Defense on June 24, 2023. (RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF DEFENSE / AFP)
If rumors about him circulate so quickly, it’s because Sergei Surovikin is an important face of the war. Between October and January he actually led the group of Russian forces deployed in Ukraine before being demoted to deputy on the orders of Valéri Guerassimov. In particular, the general had to manage the military evacuation of the large city of Kherson, which had been left to the Ukrainians. This episode remains the biggest disappointment for the Russian army since the conflict began. But Evguéni Prigojine had vowed the action of a “reasonable man” despite months of crushing the military command. The general is one of the rare officers, if not the only one, to arouse Wagner’s sympathy.
From one coup attempt to the next
Ironically, in 1991, Sergei Surovikin himself was involved in an attempted military coup. The tank convoy he led then broke through the barricades set up by demonstrators in Moscow, killing three people. He will serve seven months in prison before being pardoned by President Boris Yeltsin. A veteran of the civil war in Tajikistan in the 1990s, he also took part in the second Chechen war (1999–2000). Most importantly, Sergueï Surovikine excelled at spearheading the Russian operation in Syria, earning him the nickname “The Butcher of Aleppo.”
Wagner’s units were stationed in the country en masse and maintained excellent relations with Sergei Surovikin, who headed a military police squad. According to the Dossier Center, he even received an honorary paramilitary membership card in 2017. Created by Russian opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky, this project claims to include the names of around thirty other officers and officials in this case. Then in February 2018 in Deir ez-Zor (Syria) 100 to 300 Wagner fighters were killed by US forces. Evguéni Prigojine accused Minister Sergei Shoigu of having lured the fighters into a trap and won over a sworn enemy.
General Sergei Surovikin during a visit by President Vladimir Putin to the Russian military base in Latakia (Syria), December 11, 2017. (MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV / SPOUTNIK / AFP)
The mercenary needs Surovikin, as of October 2017 commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces. With sanctions already in place, “the Wagner group relied heavily on the capabilities of the Russian Air Force” to ensure its logistics and the movement of its mercenaries, Gleb explains to franceinfo Irisov, now in exile after becoming an Air Force lieutenant and correspondent for the Agency Tass had been. “Therefore, it was extremely useful for Yevgeny Prigoyine to have a direct line with the commander-in-chief of these units.” Without the army’s material support, it would have been difficult for the mercenaries to carry out their overseas operations.
“They have a lot in common”
Sergei Surovikin provided aircraft and the Russian military bases at Chkalovsky and Seshcha. From spring 2020, Wagner was even supplied with combat helicopters, which were intended in particular for Libya. These two men “appeared to be good partners if not friends during their talks,” says Gleb Irisov, a crew member on flights that brought the officer and mercenary together in 2019 and 2020. “They have a lot in common ideologically and in behavior”. It is not the carpet bombing that earned Sergei Surovikin his nickname “General Armageddon”, but “the chaos that reigned in the headquarters”, because of “his aggressive and rough character”.
Sergei Surovikin had remained a link between the Wagner group and the regular army in recent months. In February, when Yevgeny Prigoyine complained about being out of ammunition, he pointed out that his men were regularly turned over when the general was in command. Three months later, the paramilitaries demanded freedom of action in Bakhmout, stating that Surovikin was responsible for cooperation with the ministry, which the ministry never confirmed. Finally, on June 11, Yevgeny Prigoyine once again praised an “intelligent and experienced commander.”
Compliments that today sound like a kiss of death. Moreover, according to the Financial Times, the “pressure” that Sergey Surovikin is facing is related to his closeness to Yevgeny Prigoyine and not to suspicion of treason. “I am convinced that Vladimir Putin was aware of this intermediary role between Surovik and the army and that he gave his consent,” Tatiana Stanovaya believes. “However, the general could not perform a miracle and deliver the quantities of ammunition demanded by Wagner,” who turned his anger on Minister Shoigu.
How will Vladimir Putin react?
“There are undoubtedly sympathizers of the Wagner group at the lower and middle levels of the regular army,” the political scientist continued. But she rejects the idea of a “Wagenerized” general, a weak link in the army. Despite fundamental differences of opinion with the Shoigu-Guerasimov duo, “Surovikine and the command are absolutely loyal to Putin”. The Aerospace Forces are “the only branch of the army that directly opposed the group during its uprising,” agrees Gustav Gressel, military expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, quoted by Deutsche Welle. Several aircraft, including attack helicopters, were destroyed by the mercenaries.
The atypical career of this army “free spirit”, to use the words of Gleb Irisov, has not yet found an epilogue. In any case, the fall of the General, the Gold Medal of the Hero of the Russian Federation, revived the uncertainties about possible restructuring in the army. Some Russian military bloggers, including Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former Defense Ministry spokesman, have claimed that mid-level commanders have already been fired for their alleged inaction during the Wagner march.
Here, too, opinions differ. “For Vladimir Putin, treason is the ultimate sin,” said Roman Anin. It could affect everyone in Evguéni Prigoijne’s circle. It is therefore “possible that repression will be directed against his partners, friends and supporters within the army and the elites”. Tatyana Stanovaya acknowledges that Minister Sergei Shoigu may be tempted to get rid of the internal opposition and calls Surovikin a “traitor” to the Russian president. However, she recalls that Vladimir Putin has always been “reluctant to launch repressions because he prefers to solve problems in secret”.