Putin begins post-mutiny purge as ‘General Armageddon’ reportedly detained and deputy fired
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A top Russian general has reportedly been detained after Vladimir Putin launched a purge targeting supporters of the Wagner mutiny at the weekend.
The Financial Times on Thursday reported that the general had been detained, citing three sources familiar with the matter.
Reports about Gen Surovikin’s arrest first surfaced on Wednesday night when a pro-war Russian blogger said the general had been taken to the FSB’s notorious Lefortovo prison in Moscow.
But later on Thursday, a media outlet with close links to Russia’s FSB security service published an interview with an unnamed daughter of Gen Surovikin who insisted he was not arrested.
“Nothing happened to him. He’s at work,” the woman told Baza.
It came as satellite imagery appeared to show rapid building activity at a military base in southern Belarus, prompting speculation that Wagner troops would relocate to the country.
The images appeared to show rows of tents being built at the previously vacant military facility near the town of Asipovichy, about 50 miles from Minsk.
The FSB earlier this week dropped the criminal investigation into the mutiny but it was unclear if Gen Surovikin and others might be questioned as part of another probe.
Josep Borrel, the EU’s foreign policy chief, appeared to confirm the reports on Thursday, saying Putin had launched a crackdown targeting those with ties to the mutineers.
“Some generals have been arrested so I suppose that Putin will be in a cleaning mode internally,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gen Surovikin’s deputy, Colonel-General Andrei Yudin, has now been fired from the Russian army in the fallout from the weekend’s aborted mutiny, according to Aleksey Venediktov, the former editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow.
Col-Gen Yudin told the Ura.ru website on Thursday that he was “at home on leave”.
Several governors and other officials openly sided with Prigozhin during his feud with the defence ministry and Gen Gerasimov, the army chief.
A Kremlin spokesman on Thursday refused to comment on the whereabouts of Gen Surovikin or reports that he has been detained.
Asked by reporters if the Kremlin could clarify the situation with Gen Surovikin, Dmitry Peskov said: “No, unfortunately not.”
Sergei Markov, a former member of parliament and a Kremlin-linked political scientist, on Thursday said the authorities should “show Surovikin to everyone” or Russians “might think of large-scale, secret arrests”.
Mr Markov also said the general is likely to be questioned not as a suspect but “as a very informed” source.
“Surovikin was the main in-between for the defence ministry and Wagner so he knows more than anyone else,” he said.
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