Another high-profile general was ousted in Russia today as Vladimir Putin’s defense minister continues to weed out anyone deemed to have betrayed the Kremlin.
Paratrooper commander Major-General Vladimir Seliverstov, 49, is the eighth member of the country’s top brass to be sacked, fired, detained or disappeared in recent months.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has been accused of running ‘combat operations’ against his own staff as key combat generals have been sidelined or sidelined.
Seliverstov is one of Russia’s youngest and most ruthless generals who headed the 106th Airborne Division in the vicinity of Bakhmut where Ukraine is now advancing.
Even the support of Putin’s former bodyguard Alexei Dyumin, the governor of the Tula region and the likely anointed son of the Kremlin’s successor, failed to save the general, according to reports.
Paratrooper commander Major-General Vladimir Seliverstov, 49, (pictured right greeting Vladimir Putin in 2019) is the eighth member of the country’s top brass to be sacked, fired, detained or disappeared in recent months.
Seliverstov is one of Russia’s youngest and most ruthless generals who headed the 106th Airborne Division operating in Bakhmut, where Ukraine is now advancing.
Seliverstov’s ‘uncompromising nature’ may be the reason why he was removed
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (pictured left) is accused of conducting a ‘war campaign’ against his own staff as key combat generals are removed or sidelined.
The reason for his removal is unknown, but may have been his ‘uncompromising nature’.
He is a commander ‘unaccustomed to silence when protecting his subjects [troops]’, said a Telegram channel linked to Wagner’s mercenary army.
His death is that of the notorious General Sergei ‘Armageddon’ Surovykin, 56, who had been out of touch for 20 days since the uprising led by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
He is believed to be being interrogated, possibly imprisoned to stay by Prigogine’s side and await Putin’s decision on his fate.
Yet the witch hunts became more widespread.
Major-General Ivan Popov – who commanded Russia’s 58th Army – disappeared last week shortly after he was sacked.
A leaked voice message to soldiers revealed that he blamed Putin’s high command for ‘treacherously and brutally beheading the army at its most difficult and tense moment’.
According to Telegram channel VCHK-OGPU, Popov, 48, was ‘summoned’ to an unknown location and ‘suddenly disappeared’ after his critical criticism of Putin’s war strategy was leaked, his wife said.
Another victim was Major-General Nikolai Gostev – commander of Russia’s 4th Air Force Army – who was at least temporarily removed from his post amid Ukraine’s counterattack.
He is said to be ‘resting’ – an epithet also used about Surovykin, Russia’s second most senior military commander.
General Sergei ‘Armageddon’ Surovykin, 56, (left), pictured with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has been out of touch for 20 days since the uprising led by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Air Force Commander Col. Gen. Andre Yudin, 61, was reportedly suspended following an interrogation following the June 24 armed uprising in Wagner.
Another victim was Major-General Nikolai Gostev – commander of Russia’s Fourth Air Force – who was at least temporarily removed from his post amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
The timing has raised eyebrows as Gostev, 60, is in charge of defending the Black Sea coast, including annexed Crimea and Zaporizhia, from Ukrainian missile attacks.
The timing has raised eyebrows as Gostev, 60, is in charge of defending the Black Sea coast, including annexed Crimea and Zaporizhia, from Ukrainian missile attacks.
This week a British-supplied Storm Shadow missile killed a general known personally to Putin – Lieutenant-General Oleg Sokov, 51, in Berdyansk, an area now under intense long-range bombardment.
Air force commander Colonel-General Andre Yudin, 61, was reportedly fired after an interrogation following Wagner’s June 24 armed uprising.
The same applies to Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseev, 62, deputy chief of military intelligence.
Both Yudin and Alekseev were dismissed from duty and their movements restricted.
The eighth missing general is Deputy Defense Minister Colonel-General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, 59, who has not been seen since early July.
Earlier, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, also known as the Butcher of Mariupol, was ousted in May and joined Wagner.
He paid first with his job.
His current location is not known.
Shoigu is also firing for reserve lieutenant-general Andrey Gurulev – a prominent pro-war propaganda pundit – who was blamed for leaking the message to Popov, and thereby insulting Shoigu and the head of the armed forces, General Valery Gerasimov.
No action has been taken against him so far, but it may be a matter of time.
Shoigu continues ‘combat operations’ inside the Ministry of Defense, the channel VCHK-OGPU reported.
The eighth missing general is his close colleague and deputy – Colonel-General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, 59.
He was seen talking to Prigogine on the day of the armed uprising in Rostov-on-Don.
The Deputy Defense Minister has not been seen since early July.
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