Russia’s Most Senior General Has ‘Gone Missing’ After Wagner PMC ‘Uprising’

A second Russian general has reportedly disappeared following last weekend’s ‘armed rebellion’ by the Wagner PMC.

General Valery Gerasimov, is the current Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia. He has been in charge of Vladimir Putin’s conflict with Ukraine.

The high-ranking officer has allegedly not been mentioned since June 9 in any press releases by the Russian Defence Ministry.

Also, there has been no sign of the 67-year-old either on state television or in the public sphere since the Wagner ‘uprising’ was quelled, according to Reuters this Thursday 29.

One of the reasons for starting the march on Moscow was that Yevgeny Prigozhin wanted Gerasimov to be handed over to him, along with Sergei Shoigu, the Defence Minister, to make them answer for what the Wagner boss called their mishandling of the Ukrainian war.

According to some Western military analysts, Gerasimov is one of the three people responsible for safeguarding Russia’s ‘nuclear briefcases’.

Another top Russian General was said to have ‘vanished’

News of the General’s apparent disappearance comes just two days after his second-in-command, General Sergei Surovikin, was reported to have also ‘vanished’.

According to Telegram channels in Russia, there are suggestions that he was taken away for interrogation due to his known links to the Wagner mercenary chief.

Last Tuesday 27, a report by the New York Times claimed that US intelligence officers knew that a top Russian military officer had been aware of Progozhin’s plans to stage a ¡mutiny’.

That of course led to suggestions that Surovikin could have been that officer and that the Russian security forces had subsequently detained him.

This was denied by the Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday when he stated that there was bound to be speculation after what had taken place over the weekend.

Reuters reported US officials as saying on Wednesday that Surovkin was one of Prigizhin’s supporters but that there was no proof of his having any involvement with the Wagner incident.

Surovikin’s arrest was reported by both the Russian-language edition of the Moscow Times, citing Defence Ministry sources, and a Russian military blogger.