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Sergei Surovikin, known as "General Armageddon"

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Sergei Surovikin, the Russian general who went missing for a long time after the coup of the Wagner mercenaries, is said to be in Algeria with a delegation from the Ministry of Defense for negotiations, according to media reports. The trip testifies to the fact that the military leadership in Moscow attaches greater importance to cooperation with the Arabic-speaking world and continues to have confidence in Surovikin, the daily newspaper Kommersant quoted an informant from the general's circle as saying on Friday.

The paper speculates that the general could get a post related to the Middle East issue. The newspaper published photos purporting to show the 56-year-old in Algeria. The Telegram channel Grey Zone, which is affiliated with the Wagner Group, also published similar images.

Surovikin publicly condemned Prigozhin's uprising

Billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner mercenary troop has long been active for Moscow on the African continent. Prigozhin's units also fought in Ukraine. However, in June, Prigozhin launched a short-lived uprising against the military leadership around Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. Although he ended the uprising himself and was officially pardoned by the Kremlin, Prigozhin was killed in an allegedly intentional plane crash in August. Since then, the Ministry of Defense has been trying to take over the Wagner connections in Africa.

Surovikin was commander-in-chief of Russian troops in Ukraine from October 2022 to January 2023 in the war of aggression against Ukraine. He was considered a brutal war strategist, which earned him the nickname "General Armageddon". In their summer offensive, the Ukrainian troops tried to break through the defenses named after him, the "Suroviking Line".

Surovikin was also considered one of Prigozhin's most important allies in the Russian army in his power struggle with Shoigu and Gerasimov. Surovikin publicly condemned the uprising of Prigozhin's Wagner troupe at the end of June, but he was not seen in public afterwards. In mid-August, he was removed from office as head of the Russian Aerospace Forces, according to media reports. It was not until the beginning of September that he reappeared in public for the first time.

czl/dpa