Investigators have questioned one of Russia’s top generals about the failed mutiny that presented the greatest challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s quarter-century rule.
Sergei Surovikin was quizzed by officials representing military prosecutors over several days about his links to Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is sensitive.
The general is being kept in one place but isn’t in prison, and investigators are treating him cautiously to avoid antagonizing others within the military who admire Surovikin’s record of achievements with the army, the person said.
Surovikin, 56, is a career military officer with a fearsome reputation that earned him the nickname “General Armageddon.” He hasn’t been seen since the end of Saturday’s rebellion by Wagner mercenaries that Putin said brought Russia to the brink of “civil war.”
The uprising shattered Putin’s image as an invincible leader after Wagner’s forces raced to within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow virtually unchallenged before Prigozhin called a halt.
The crisis has left the U.S., Europe and China puzzling over the political fallout from the rebellion, which highlighted bitter divisions in Russia over how to fight the faltering war in Ukraine that’s the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. A Ukrainian counteroffensive is pushing to oust Russia from occupied territories.
While the Kremlin attempts to project an image of the president resuming routine duties, Putin has bolstered loyalists within his security establishment as he seeks to reassert his authority.
Russia’s National Guard, which answers directly to Putin and is headed by his former chief personal bodyguard Viktor Zolotov, is getting tanks and other heavy weapons that it has previously been denied. “This is a very acute issue now,” Zolotov said Tuesday, according to the state-run Tass news service.
Putin put Surovikin in charge of Russia’s army in Ukraine in October and he oversaw the retreat by Russian troops from the Ukrainian city of Kherson the following month.
The general was replaced as overall commander in January by Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, one of two men along with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that Prigozhin had vowed to oust during his rebellion.
Prigozhin has repeatedly heaped praise on Surovikin’s military leadership in the war, while sharply criticizing the Defense Ministry’s other top officials.
The general was last seen in a video posted on the Defense Ministry’s Telegram channel on Saturday urging Prigozhin and his forces to stop their uprising and to “obey the will and order” of the president.
Surovikin led Russian operations in Syria to crush opposition groups fighting President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.
He was sanctioned by the European Union in February last year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.
He commanded armored vehicles that were sent into Moscow in 1991 to support the attempted coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev by Communist hardliners. Surovikin was jailed, then later pardoned and released.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment Thursday when asked by reporters on a conference call whether Surovikin had been dismissed or detained, saying they should contact the Defense Ministry, according to the Interfax news service.
Prigozhin ended his revolt after accepting a deal with Putin brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that allowed him to go to the neighboring country after criminal charges were dropped against the Wagner founder and his fighters.
Wagner’s heavily armed troops took control of Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don and moved rapidly toward Moscow across 780 km of territory during a period of 24 hours, blockading army units along the way.
Putin appeared to allude to the crisis at a Moscow forum Thursday titled “Strong Ideas for a New Time,” where audience members presented proposals for economic and social development.
“There’s a feeling of confidence that no matter what difficulties arise, we will overcome them all calmly, rhythmically, and moving forward,” said Putin, who was given a standing ovation when he arrived on stage to speak.
