Purge reports: Putin launches revenge campaign against…

General Sorokvekin is said to have been arrested for his alleged involvement in Prigozhin’s revolt. Other senior military officials are also being targeted, according to the bloggers. Putin’s personal security service is investigating officers who appeared to be “indecisive” during the attempted robbery.

On the scene of military bloggers in Russia, reports are overflowing: the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, launched a wave of purges in the leadership of the armed forces. One of the chief victims of these measures is said to be General Sergei Surovikin. The highly decorated officer is said to have been missing since Saturday. On Wednesday, the Moscow Times reported, citing two sources in the Russian Defense Ministry, that the general had been arrested. This was also mentioned by the Russian military blogger Vladimir Romanov. The blogger wrote that Surovikin is being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison. For a long time, Sorovikin was Putin’s man in charge of the tough stuff: in the bloody operations in Syria and Ukraine. However, reports emerged early Tuesday that the militant was privy to Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny. The New York Times wrote, citing American sources.

Coup attempt as a pretext for purges

Alexey Venediktov, former editor-in-chief of radio station Echo Moskvy, estimates that Surovkin could be blamed for other “mistakes” – such as giving up the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine in November 2022.