According to reports in the Russian press, General Sergei Surovikin, former commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, arrived in Algeria together with a delegation from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
This is his first visit abroad since he stopped appearing in public after the uprising of the Wagner group and the death of its head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, writes the Russian daily “Kommersant”.
– Surowikin enjoys the utmost confidence and it is possible that the general’s departure is related to his possible appointment to a position related to work in the east direction – said the newspaper’s interlocutor.
Prigozhin’s coup. Surovikin knew his plans?
Surovikin, considered an ally of Prigozhin, disappeared from public view after the Wagner mercenary leader defied Russia’s military leadership and announced a march on Moscow in late June. Surovikin is said to have seen Prigozhin’s plans in advance, although at the very beginning of the uprising he had recorded a video calling on the Wagnerites to withdraw.
On June 28, Surovikin was arrested. – Apparently he sided with Prigozhin during the uprising and they grabbed him by the balls – an interlocutor from the Russian Ministry of Defense told ‘Moscow Times’. In August, reports emerged that Soerovikin had been officially dismissed from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The New York Times reported in early September, based on American and Russian sources, that Surowikin had been fired. A photo appeared on social media showing the general walking with his wife Anna.
The Kremlin spokesman did not allow questions to be asked about the fate of the Russian general
NYT sources believe that Surovikin is “technically still an officer, but he no longer has any career prospects.” The Russian president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, did not want to talk to journalists about the Russian general’s fate.
– Sergei Shoigu (Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation – ed.) Yesterday left unanswered a question about a possible investigation into the case of General Surovikin. Can I ask you this question? – a correspondent from the French news agency AFP asked Peskov. “No, that’s not possible,” the Kremlin spokesman replied.
The Wagner group’s uprising weakened Putin’s position
The armed uprising launched by the Wagner Group in late June, when mercenaries captured Rostov-on-Don and then began marching on Moscow, shooting down Defense Ministry planes along the way, made Putin look weak and was perhaps the most dramatic moment in recent times. twenty years of his rule,” notes “The New York Times.”
Prigozhin died in a plane crash
On August 23, an Embraer Legacy 600 plane from Moscow to St. Petersburg, owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s company, crashed in Tver Oblast. On board the machine were the founder of the Wagner Group, his deputy and head of security Valery Chekalov, as well as the commander of the formation, Dmitry Utkin, and several mercenaries. All passengers and three crew members (10 people in total) were killed.
On August 27, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation completed DNA testing of the disaster victims. A commission spokesman said all bodies, including Prigozhin’s, had been identified.
The causes of the crash are still being explained by Russian prosecutors, but there are mainly two hypotheses: the plane was shot down by the S-300 anti-aircraft system and the explosion of a bomb on board.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his first public comments on the disaster, offered his condolences to all the families of the victims. He called Prigozhin a “man with a difficult fate” who made serious mistakes in his life but was a “talented businessman.”
Prigozhin was buried peacefully in a cemetery in St. Petersburg on August 29.
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
