Several pro-Kremlin milbloggers have reported that Sergey Surovikin, the former commander of Russia’s aerospace forces, took part in celebrations of the 80th Victory Day anniversary as part of a Russian delegation in Algeria. He appeared to be a shadow of the man dubbed “General Armageddon” for his actions in Syria and as the architect of Russia’s defensive line in Ukraine.
The independent Astra news site reporting on Telegram cited Lt. Gen. Viktor Sobolev, a member of Russia’s State Duma Defense Committee, saying that Surovikin was now working as a military adviser in Africa.
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The Africa Intelligence news outlet reported in December that he had settled in Algiers where he was acting as a military-technical advisor to the Algerian authorities and Moscow’s “unofficial ambassador” in the absence of a permanent diplomatic representative. In the May 9 photograph he was pictured alongside Alexei Solomatin who was appointed as Ambassador in January.
Surovikin was sacked as head of Russia’s air force and commander of the Kremlin’s operations in Ukraine by President Vladimir Putin in August 2023 because of his close links to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner PMC, following the mercenary leader’s aborted mutiny in the previous June.
However, The New York Times reported a few days after Prigozhin’s death in a suspicious plane crash that Surovikin would retain his rank and continue to serve in Russia’s armed forces, but in a role that “no longer offers any career prospects.”
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In September 2023 Russia’s Kommersant reported that he had been appointed head of an air defense committee for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – Russia’s EU equivalent – in which role he first came to Algeria as a member of a Russian Defense ministry delegation.
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