Sources in the Russian Ministry of Defense report the arrest of General Surovikin

The deputy commander of the joint group of Russian troops in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, was arrested. This information was provided to The Moscow Times by two sources close to the apparatus of the Ministry of Defense. Officially, the department has not commented on this information.

“There, the story with him was not “OK”. For power. I can’t say anything more,” one of the sources commented on the reason for the arrest.

“In the context of Prigogine. Apparently he [Surovikin] chose the side [of Prigozhin during the rebellion] and they grabbed him by the balls,” said the second source. When asked where the general is now, he replied: “We don’t even comment on this information through internal channels.”

Rumors about the arrest of Surovikin were previously published by military blogger Vladimir Romanov. According to him, the general was arrested on June 25, the day after the rebellion of the Wagner PMC led by Yevgeny Prigozhin. According to him, Surovikin is in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center.

Surovikin knew in advance about Yevgeny Prigozhin's plans to start an armed rebellion against the Russian military leadership, The New York Times previously reported, citing US officials familiar with intelligence.

They say they are now trying to find out whether Surovikin helped plan the mutiny that turned into a march on Moscow and became the most serious threat to the regime of President Vladimir Putin in his 23 years in office.

According to a source in The Moscow Times, it is not entirely clear whether Surovikin was aware of Prigozhin's rebellion. “He did not behave very submissively when he was given the task of reading the text on camera and sorting it out, he was too daring to the leadership,” the source said. Because of this, according to him, one might get the impression that Surovikin is part of the “Prigozhin coalition.”