Rumors are multiplying about the fate reserved for this deputy of the Russian operations staff in Ukraine. He was one of the few senior army officers to benefit from the leniency of the boss of the paramilitary group.
Where is Sergei Surovikin? The greatest mystery hovers over the fate of this senior officer in the Russian army, and rumors about him are multiplying on social networks. The general was notably absent during Vladimir Putin’s speech to the armed forces on Tuesday, June 27, after Wagner’s aborted march to Moscow. The fate of Sergueï Sourovikine, appreciated by Evguéni Prigojine, arouses all the more lively attention as he would have been informed, beforehand, of the paramilitary project, affirmed on Wednesday the New York Times and the wall street journal. Of the “speculation and gossip”replied the Kremlin.
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Several media outlets have since claimed that the general had been arrested. In reality, there is nothing to confirm this. “My sources at the Ministry of Defense and the FSB deny that Sergei Surovikin was imprisoned.explains to franceinfo Roman Anin, Russian journalist and founder of Important Stories, an independent media. “They do confirm, however, that he was interrogated before being released.” The Kremlin, for its part, is content to refer to the Ministry of Defense. “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, interviewed by franceinfo.
At this stage, only one certainty. Sourovikine has not reappeared since Saturday morning, the day of the mutiny. With a grave and defeated face, he then asked Wagner to abandon his march towards Moscow. “Before it is too late, we must obey the will and the order of the elected President of Russia.”, he implored in simple fatigues, hardly to his advantage. Was this statement spontaneous or was he forced to record it? Both options are debated by observers. The Ministry of Defense, which released these images, did not provide any details on the location and circumstances of the shooting.
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If rumors circulate so quickly on his account, it is because Sergei Surovikin is an important face of the war. Between October and January, he indeed led the group of Russian forces engaged in Ukraine, before being demoted to the rank of deputy, under the orders of Valéri Guerassimov. The general had notably had to manage the military evacuation of the great city of Kherson, abandoned to the Ukrainians. This episode remains the greatest disappointment suffered by the Russian army since the beginning of the conflict. But Yevgeny Prigojine hailed the actions of a “reasonable man”, while he had yet been crushing the military command for months. The general is one of the rare officers, if not the only one, to arouse the sympathy of Wagner.
From one coup attempt to another
Ironically, Sergei Surovikin had himself participated in an attempted military coup in 1991. The armored convoy he led then broke through barricades set up by demonstrators in Moscow, killing three people. He will spend seven months in prison, before being pardoned by President Boris Yeltsin. A veteran of the civil war in Tajikistan in the 1990s, he also participated in the second Chechen war (1999-2000). But Sergueï Surovikine distinguished himself above all at the head of the Russian operation in Syria, which earned him the nickname of “butcher of Aleppo”.
Deployed en masse in the country, Wagner’s units maintained excellent relations with Sergei Surovikin, at the head of a military police group. In 2017, he even received an honorary membership card in the paramilitaries, according to information from the Dossier Center. This project, founded by the Russian opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky, claims to hold the names of around thirty other officers and officials in this case. Then, in February 2018, 100 to 300 Wagner fighters were killed by US forces in Deir ez-Zor (Syria). Evguéni Prigojine accused Minister Sergei Shoigu of having precipitated the fighters into a trap, and won over a sworn enemy.
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The mercenary needs Surovikin, commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces from October 2017. Already targeted by sanctions, “the Wagner group relied heavily on the capabilities of the Russian Air Force” to ensure its logistics and the movement of its mercenaries, explains to franceinfo Gleb Irisov, today in exile after having been a lieutenant in the air force and correspondent for the Tass agency. “It was therefore extremely useful for Yevgeny Prigojine to have a direct connection with the supreme commander of these units.” Without the material support of the army, it would have been difficult for the mercenaries to conduct their overseas operations.
“They have a lot in common”
Sergei Surovikin provided aircraft and the Russian military bases of Chkalovsky and Seshcha. Then, from the spring of 2020, it even supplied Wagner with combat helicopters, intended in particular for Libya. These two men “seemed good partners, if not friends, in their discussions”says Gleb Irisov, a member of the crew on flights bringing together the officer and the mercenary, in 2019 and 2020. “They have a lot in common, ideologically and in behavior”. It is not the carpet bombs that earned Sergei Surovikin his nickname “General Armageddon”, but “the mess that reigned at headquarters”due “of his aggressive and rough character”.
In recent months, Sergei Surovikin had remained a link between the Wagner group and the regular army. In February, when he complained of no longer receiving ammunition, Yevgeny Prigojine had pointed out that his men were regularly delivered when the general was in command. Three months later, the paramilitary had demanded freedom of action in Bakhmout, and declared that Surovikin was in charge of cooperation with the ministry, which the latter never confirmed. On June 11, finally, Evguéni Prigojine was still singing the praises of a “intelligent and experienced commander”.
Compliments that today sound like a kiss of death. For the FinancialTimesTHE “pressures” which Sergei Surovikin is the subject of are moreover linked to his closeness to Yevgeny Prigoijine, rather than to suspicions of treason. “I am convinced that Vladimir Putin was informed of this role of mediator between Surovikin and the army, and that he had given his agreementbelieves for her part Tatiana Stanovaya. “However, the general could not perform miracles and provide the quantities of ammunition requested by Wagner”who directed his anger at Minister Shoigu.
How will Vladimir Putin react?
“There are no doubt sympathizers of the Wagner group at the lower and middle levels of the regular army troops”, continues the political scientist. But she rejects the idea of a “wagnerized” general, a weak link in the army. Despite substantive disagreements with the Shoigu-Guerasimov duo, “Surovikine and the command are absolutely loyal to Putin”. Aerospace forces have been “the only branch of the military that directly opposed the group” during his rebellion, also notes Gustav Gressel, military expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, quoted by the German media Deutsche Welle. Several aircraft, including combat helicopters, were destroyed by the mercenaries.
The atypical course of this “free electron” from the army, in the words of Gleb Irisov, has not yet found an epilogue. The General’s Case, Gold Medal of Hero of the Russian Federation, in any case revives the uncertainties about possible reshuffles in the army. Some Russian military bloggers, including Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former Defense Ministry press secretary, claimed that mid-level commanders had already been purged, for their alleged inaction during the Wagner march.
Again, opinions differ. “For Vladimir Putin, betrayal is the ultimate sin”, emphasizes Roman Anin. It could concern all those who are in the circle of Evguéni Prigoijne. It is therefore “possible that repressions target his partners, friends and supporters within the army and the elites”. Tatiana Stanovaya concedes that theMinister Sergei Shoigu might be tempted to get rid of internal opposition, by describing Surovikin “like a traitor” to the Russian President. But she recalls that Vladimir Putin has always “been reluctant to launch crackdownsvsar he prefers to solve problems in the shadows”.