General Surovykin remains in custody after the “Wagnerovtsev” rebellion

A few hours after the beginning of the mutiny of PMC “Wagner” mercenaries and their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the internal security service of Russia detained several high-ranking Russian military personnel, including the commander of the Aerospace Forces, General Sergei Surovykin. The Wall Street Journal writes about this on Thursday with reference to sources familiar with the situation.

The interlocutors of the publication said that Surovykin was detained and interrogated in Moscow, but no charges were brought against him. In total, the newspaper wrote about the detention of 13 high-ranking Russian officers, some of whom were later released. In addition, as stated in the publication, 15 servicemen were dismissed or dismissed.

According to one of the interlocutors of the newspaper, the detentions are connected with “purging the ranks” of those who can no longer be trusted. General Surovykin is still in custody along with Colonel-General Mikhail Myzyntsev, who held the post of Deputy Minister of Defense, but at the end of April joined PMC “Wagner”.

Several mass media outlets, including the Financial Times and The Moscow Time, previously wrote about the detention of Sergey Surovykin, Novaya Gazeta. Evropa notes. One of the sources of The Wall Street Journal reported that the general knew about the upcoming uprising against the military leadership of Russia, but did not take part in it.

Among those who were detained, but later released, are Surovykin’s deputy, Colonel-General Andrey Yudin, and Deputy Chief of Military Intelligence, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseev, the publication says. They are removed from service, their movements are restricted, the servicemen themselves are allegedly under surveillance.

• After the beginning of the “Wagnerovtsev” rebellion on June 23-24, the commander of the VKS Sergey Surovykin publicly condemned him. Since then, he has not commented on the event. The fate of the general, who also holds the post of deputy commander of a group of Russian troops in Ukraine, has not been officially announced.