The sudden disappearance, the rumors of escalation, then the reappearance. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, there have been rumors about Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. After thirtytwo days of war, bombs and deaths, where he is and what he is doing has become a mystery. “Strategic nuclear forces must be kept combat ready,” said the minister, who suddenly reappeared at a meeting in Moscow. Shoigu is one of the three people in Russia who have the codes for the atomic bomb, and after he disappeared from radar for days, rumors of everything from his illness to a possible purge began to circulate.
Now, according to Bellingcat, a group of investigative journalists specializing in fact checks and opensource intelligence services are said to be staying in a nuclear bunker near Ufa in the Urals with Shoigu and other highranking officials, presumably including President Vladimir Putin. The revelation would have come through some recent flight data.
Shoigu was out of action for thirteen days, leading people to fear the worst. There were those who had persistently spoken out about health issues: then finally reappearing in video during a video conference many had noticed the oddity of the webcam, which had previously shown movement and would suddenly have pale white framing the minister sitting behind the desk.
The most disturbing rumors were finally silenced by Russian expatriate Sergei Lavrov, who in an interview with Serbian media quoted by Interfax said: “News that a coup may be being prepared in Russia, as well as the ‘disappearance’ of des Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu are wrong and “nonsense”. I don’t want to comment nonsense. “Because that’s just an absurdity spread by Ukraine’s special services,” he noted. Our Russian neoliberals, who are now abroad, are also spreading it. The “disappearance of the Russian Defense Minister is all a true lie, everyone is alive, everyone is healthy, everyone is working, you see him regularly on TV screens and on social networks.