Involvement in Wagner uprising
London thinks punishing Surovkin is risky
07/05/2023, 09:35 am
Since the Wagner uprising there has been no trace of Sergei Surovikin, his fate is unknown. Punishment of the Russian general would be risky for the Kremlin in the British view. So any official punishment is likely to have a divisive effect.
Punishment of the prominent Russian general Sergey Surovikin for his involvement in the mutiny of the private army Wagner would be risky for the Russian leadership in the British view. “Although best known in the West for his brutal reputation, Surovikin is one of the most respected senior officers in the Russian military,” Britain’s MoD said in its daily intelligence update. “Any official penalty against him is likely to be divisive.”
The British ministry stressed that Surovikin, the chief of Russia’s air and space forces and former supreme commander in the war of aggression against Ukraine, has not been seen in public since the Wagner uprising on June 23-24. According to British estimates, Surovikin was a liaison to the Ministry of Defense for Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov was recently absent. He was filmed talking to Prigozhin when Wagner units occupied the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and their headquarters without a fight. “Reports of Surovikin’s arrest cannot be confirmed, but authorities are likely to be suspicious of his long association with Wagner, dating back to his 2017 service in Syria,” the UK ministry said.
The fact that senior officers are now under suspicion shows “how Prigozhin’s failed uprising has exacerbated the existing fault lines within Russia’s national security community.”