Surovikin finds ‘new good position’ in CIS – Russian State Duma

Retired Colonel General Viktor Zavarzin, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee, said this in a comment to the Podyem newspaper.

It is noted that today, the name of Sergei Surovikin has disappeared from the list of Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces on the Defense Ministry's website. Zavarzin said that "nothing terrible" is happening, and Surovikin is now "resting after the war."

"He fought well, the situation has passed. I know the same thing as you, that they found him another position, changed him, his chief of staff is executing the commander-in-chief's commands, and Surovikin has another position, a good one, for the CIS or whatever it is properly called. But let's wait and see, this is not the main thing. The man was at war, he's resting now, and he'll probably be on vacation for some time. We'll have to wait and see. Nothing terrible is happening there," he said.

Who is Surovikin?

General Sergei Surovikin has been the head of the Russian occupation forces in Ukraine since the beginning of October 2022. In January, he was removed from this position. Surovikin is also called "General Armageddon" because of his criminal orders to bomb Syria.

Earlier, The New York Times, citing US officials familiar with the intelligence, wrote that Surovikin knew in advance about Prigozhin's plans to launch an armed rebellion against Russia's military leadership. Now, the US authorities are trying to find out whether Surovikin helped plan the rebellion.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the publication and said it was "speculation".

"Now there will be a lot of different speculations, gossip and so on around these events. I think this is one such example," he said.

After the unsuccessful rebellion of Wagner's leader Prigozhin, the media reported that Surovikin had been arrested. Media wrote that he had allegedly supported Prigozhin, although the Russian general had recorded a video calling on the Wagner mercenaries to stop.

The commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces and deputy commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, could be arrested after the failed coup by Wagner PMC financier Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Financial Times reported on June 29.  

Instead, Surovikin's daughter Veronika denied the general's arrest in a commentary to a Russian propaganda outlet.

According to British intelligence, after Prigozhin's mutiny, two Russian generals, Sergei Surovikin and Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, no longer appear in public.