The Moscow Times reports that Russian general Sergey Surovikin has been arrested.
A report yesterday in the New York Times said he at least knew about Prigozhin’s plans, citing US intelligence sources.
Surovikin is a major figure in the Russian military. He is currently head of the joint aerospace forces, which includes the air force. From Oct 2022-Jan 2023 he was the commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine.
He’s known to be close to Prigozhin.
Rumours started about his arrest on June 25 and he hasn’t been seen since then.
Surovikin did appear via video denouncing the uprising as it was occurring.
“I urge you to stop,” General Surovikin said in a message posted on Telegram. “The enemy is just waiting for the internal political situation to worsen in our country.”
Some though compared that to a hostage video.
The Moscow Times report says officials are trying to find out how much Surovikin may have known and whether he ever planned to participate.
Others are skeptical that he could have been involved given that Prigozhin’s troops shot down at least 7 aircraft that were commanded by Surovikin.
In any case, the risks around Russia now and into the weekend are certainly far lower than they were a few days ago, but they haven’t disappeared. If I were the US or UK intelligence community, I would be planting all kinds of stories about conspirators in an attempt to sow disunity and paranoia in Russian forces and Putin.