Thursday the Wall Street Journal he wrote, citing anonymous sources familiar with the facts, that after the failed armed uprising of the Wagner group, the Russian government reportedly arrested several important army commanders. Among these there would also be Sergei Surovikin, commander of the Russian air force, who has not been seen in public since the day of the revolt, June 24th. As reported to the Wall Street Journal, Surovikin was allegedly aware of the Wagner group’s uprising plans, but was not directly involved in them.
Surovikin is a very important, influential and respected military man in Russia, and between October 2022 and January 2023 he also coordinated the military operations of the Russian army in Ukraine, only to be replaced by Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff of the army. On Wednesday Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Defense Committee of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, explained Surovikin’s absence by saying that he “is resting” and “is not available”.
According to Wall Street Journal, in addition to Surovikin, his deputy, Andrey Yudin, and the deputy commander of Russian military intelligence, Vladimir Alexeyev, were also arrested, but were subsequently released and kept under observation. Mikhail Mizintsev, a former deputy defense minister who joined the Wagner group in April, was also allegedly arrested.