2023-07-13 21:15:00
The Russian army is known for its taste for secrecy, but since the aborted rebellion of the paramilitary group Wagner, the mysteries surrounding it accumulate even more. Russian leaders have suffered from a great deal of “friction and confusion” since the Wagner mercenary group mutiny, US General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a small group of journalists accompanying him to Asia.
Between rumors of a purge, fear of a second uprising and harsh criticism, a look back at what we know through the fate of three generals.
The disappearance of General Surovikin
Reputed to be ruthless, a veteran of the brutal wars in Chechnya (1999-2009) and Syria, Sergei Surovikin is one of the emblematic commanders of the Russian military intervention in Ukraine, which he led from October 2022 to January 2023. He is also considered close to Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigojine, who spared him in his aggressive videos targeting the Russian general staff and even said he saw in him “the only man wearing the star of an army general who knows how to fight”. But since the failure of the rebellion, Sergei Surovikin has disappeared.
VIDEO. Who is Sergei Surovikin, the general chosen by Putin in October 2022
His last public appearance dates back to a video, the night of the mutiny, in which he coercedly urges Wagner’s troops to give up. He is in uniform but without epaulets, some observers seeing this as a sign that he had already been arrested.
Because according to New York Times, which cites US intelligence, General Surovikin knew about the mutiny. The Kremlin, he denies and says that the man is officially still in office. But the most diverse rumors circulate, from the arrest to the simple layoff. On Wednesday, the head of Russia’s Duma Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, revived the speculation in cryptic terms: Surovikin “is resting, he is unavailable at the moment”, he claimed.
The dismissal of General Popov
In an audio message revealed on Wednesday evening, Major-General Ivan Popov claims to have been suspended from his duties for having “harshly” alerted the high command to the difficulties encountered in Ukraine, in particular the heavy human losses and the lack of state-of-the-art equipment.
“The Ukrainian forces were unable to break through our army from the front, and we were hit from behind by our main commander, who cowardly decapitated the army at the most difficult moment,” he continues, seeming to aim for the leader of General Staff, General Gerasimov.
General Ivan Popov. Russian Defense Ministry/Handout via REUTERS.
According to the Telegram channel Gray Zone, followed by more than 500,000 subscribers, this one would have indeed accused Popov of “disinformation and alarmism” by learning about the report.
Ivan Popov, however, is not just anyone: he leads the 58th Russian army, considered one of the most valuable in combat and positioned in the Ukrainian region of Zaporijjia, where it suffered the counter-offensive from Kiev.
Moscow does not like to see this dirty laundry washed in public: initially intended for a private military chat, the general’s message was broadcast by an MP, reprimanded by a United Russia party official accusing him of having transformed this dispute into a “political spectacle”.
The death of General Tsokov
Was Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov killed on July 11 by a Ukrainian strike on a hotel far from the front near Berdiansk, an occupied city in southern Ukraine?
It is unlikely that the Russian army will confirm the death immediately, but so do Russian public television and pro-Kremlin military bloggers, crucial sources of information in the absence of official comments from Moscow. . This new death of a general, in a targeted strike, aroused a salvo of criticism. “It’s sad to say, but the quality of the enemy’s intelligence is superior to ours,” commented the Zapiski Veterana channel.
The blogger Rybar, followed by 1.2 million subscribers, sharply criticized the Russian high command for doing nothing, while the existence of “sleeping cells” informing Kiev from the occupied territories and the espionage capacities satellite of Ukraine’s Western allies are known. “Everyone knows it, everyone is informed about it, but no action is taken,” he added.
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