Two of Russia’s senior commanders have reportedly disappeared from public view after the Wagner Group’s aborted mutiny, which targeted Russian military leadership.
One general was reportedly arrested in the days since Yevgeny Prigozhin called off his short-lived rebellion and relocated his forces to Belarus. Prigozhin’s “march for justice” on Moscow was seen as the most significant challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime in decades, and Putin now seeks to reassert his authority.
The other commander, Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov, has not appeared in public or on state TV since the aborted mutiny on Saturday, when Prigozhin demanded Gerasimov be handed over. Nor has he been mentioned in a defense ministry press release since June 9, Reuters reported.
Gerasimov, 67, is the commander of Russia’s invasion force in Ukraine and one of three Russian commanders who hold “nuclear briefcases,” according to some Western military analysts.
RUSSIAN COMMANDER WHO MAY HAVE KNOWN ABOUT WAGNER REBELLION IS ARRESTED: REPORT
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov attend an expanded meeting of the Russian Defence Ministry Board at the National Defence Control Centre in Moscow, on Dec. 21, 2022. Gerasimov has not been seen in public since mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin called off his rebellion against Russia’s military leadership. (MIKHAIL KIREYEV/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
Also missing is deputy commander Gen. Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon,” who The Moscow Times reported was arrested on Sunday, though those reports are unconfirmed.
Rumors of the deputy commander’s arrest were previously discussed by military blogger Vladimir Romanov, who reported that Surovikin was arrested Sunday, the day after Wagner mercenary troops led by Prigozhin engaged in a short-lived mutiny.
News of Surovikin’s possible arrest came after The New York Times reported that he had advanced knowledge of Prigozhin’s plans to rebel against Russia’s military leadership.
U.S. officials briefed on American intelligence told the Times they are trying to determine whether Surovikin helped Prigozhin.
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Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves the headquarters of the Southern Military District amid the group’s pullout from the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24, 2023. (REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko)
The Kremlin on Wednesday played down the reports, saying there would be a lot of speculation and gossip.
Rybar, an influential Telegram channel run by a former Russian defense ministry press officer, said a purge was underway, Reuters reported.
Rybar claimed Russia’s top brass were trying to remove military personnel believed to have shown “a lack of decisiveness” in crushing the rebellion amid reports that Wagner fighters met little resistance from Russia’s armed forces in the first hours of the rebellion.
“The armed insurgency by the Wagner private military company has become a pretext for a massive purge in the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces,” Rybar said, per Reuters.
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The top Russian military commander in Ukraine, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, left, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, right. (AP)
Gerasimov was not present on Tuesday when Putin thanked the army for preventing a civil war, unlike Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, a long-time Putin ally who Prigozhin had accused of corruption and incompetence in prosecuting the war in Ukraine.
Surovikin, Gerasimov’s deputy, has not been seen since Saturday when he appeared in a video appealing to Prigozhin to stop the mutiny. Western analysts suggested Surovikin looked exhausted and may have been speaking under duress.
The general first gained notoriety in 1991 for ordering Russian soldiers to fire on protesting civilians in Moscow in the final months of the Soviet Union. He displayed similar brutality when Putin deployed him to Syria in 2017, allegedly ordering the indiscriminate bombings of Aleppo and other anti-government strongholds.
Prigozhin had previously praised Surovikin as “the most able commander in the Russian army.”
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Former U.S. defense intelligence officer Rebekah Koffler agreed that Putin looks to be consolidating power and surrounding himself with loyalists.
“Putin is orchestrating a purge to capitalize on the coup, which in my intelligence assessment was a false flag operation,” Koffler told Fox News Digital. “He is continuing to advance the narrative that he is the one and only strong leader who is able to crush all the traitors, squash the mutiny and save Mother Russia — this is in preparation for his 2024 re-election run. He is consolidating power even further, ensuring he is only surrounded by loyalties.”
Koffler said Putin wants to drive the narrative that instability in Russia, which possesses the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, is bad for the entire world.
“General Armageddon is arrested and Gen. Gerasimov, of the holders of Putin’s 3 nuclear footballs is missing — a threatening situation. Until Ukraine is crushed by Russia and Putin gets to keep Crimea and the provinces he has annexed, no one will sleep safely,” Koffler said. “This is what Putin wants the world to know.”
Fox News’ Bradford Betz, Anders Hagstrom and Reuters contributed to this report.
