1/ Russia's air force chief, Sergey Surovikin, is still missing from the public eye more than a week after the Wagner Group's failed mutiny. He's reportedly being "isolated" with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu's approval after being denounced by those close to him. ⬇️
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that "reports on [Surovikin] were written (allegedly voluntarily) by two people from very close quarters, including a personal assistant.
3/ "In them, the military personnel claim that Surovikin had a close relationship with Prigozhin before and during the campaign against Moscow and supported the leader of the Wagner PMC in this effort. They also gave details of the relationship between Surovikin and Prigozhin.
4/ "Shoigu gave the go-ahead for these reports, [and] the FSB, the Military Prosecutor's Office and other structures were involved in the assigned verification.
5/ "There is no official investigation, but in fact Surovikin is being interrogated about all the information that was stated by the [informants]. Surovikin is not officially detained, but is being held in isolation for the time of the investigation. Allegedly voluntarily.
6/ "His relatives are promised that he will be home soon. It is expected that this may happen on 4 July, when the general's wife Anna has her birthday."
1/ Colleges in the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia are issuing diplomas only if the students accept a mobilisation order at the same time. If they refuse, they face being imprisoned for up to two years. ⬇️
2/ The Ingush news website Fortanga reports that students are being forced to go in person to receive their diplomas. They are immediately being handed a summons for mobilisation, in front of witnesses, and have to decide whether to accept it. Their decision is recorded.
3/ If they refuse the summons, they face a 200,000 ruble fine, forced labour, arrest or imprisonment for up to two years.
As a source tells Fortanga: "To get a diploma, you have to sign a summons to the army. Otherwise, you don't get a diploma in any way.
1/ The Russian mafia has become a silent partner in Russia's war effort, in another indication of how close the state and the criminal underworld have become. An analysis shows how high-profile gangsters have fought and in some cases died in Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ The independent Russian media outlet Polygon Media reports that senior figures among Russia's vory – its criminal elite – have lent their support to Russia's war in Ukraine. This is a major change in attitude for the vory, who are traditionally anti-authority.
3/ Influential members – 'authorities' – of at least 10 criminal gangs have died in the war, as this map shows. They include men who have been convicted of robbery, extortion and murder, and in some cases were serving decades-long prison sentences.
1/ Yevgeny Prigozhin's business empire is rapidly being dismantled. It's lost its contract to provide (rotten, infected, adulterated) food to the Russian army, and his media empire is shutting down. Thousands of his staff have been made redundant, many with no severance pay. ⬇️
2/ Until Prigozhin's mutiny last month, his Concord Group was the Russian military's biggest food supplier. The Russian government paid it 845 billion rubles ($9.6 billion) under a contract with the Russian MOD's procurement arm, Voentorg. That has now been cancelled.
3/ Concord also has the dubious title of being the MOD's most-sued contractor, with 560 lawsuits being filed in 2022 alone for supplying the Russian army with food contaminated with bacteria, insects and worms, and scams such as substituted ingredients.
1/ Russian front-line hospitals are experiencing acute shortages of personnel and supplies. Only officers are reportedly evacuated to Russia, with ordinary soldiers being treated without anaesthesia or medications. Volunteers are providing most of the medical supplies. ⬇️
2/ The Insider reports on the calamitous state of Russian front-line medical care in the occupied regions of Ukraine. Simply getting to a medical facility is hard enough – many have complained that the wounded are not being evacuated and are often left to die.
3/ Wounded soldiers are supposed to be stabilised and sent to the nearest military field hospital, where they are triaged. They are then meant to be sent to regional hospitals in the occupied territories or in Russia, depending on the severity of their injuries.
1/ Angry mobilised Russians have recorded themselves in a verbal confrontation with an officer. It's a rare insight into the relationship between the soldiers facing Ukraine's counter-offensive and their frequently absent commanders, whom they say have abandoned them to die. ⬇️
2/ The men are reportedly from the 1486th Leningrad Regiment. They are serving on the Bakhmut flanks, from which videos have emerged about their treatment as "cannon fodder" and their lack of ammunition or training. This recording says the same things.
3/ In the recording, the discussion goes as follows. An officer (O) named Sergey is apparently informing a soldier (S) about the death of a popular man in their unit during the Ukrainian counter-offensive. The soldier is very angry about how the men have been treated:
1/ A leaked document shows that the Russian Ministry of Defence was notified prior to the mutiny that Wagner would be moving equipment across Russia. However, this was reportedly cover for a plan to capture and remove Defence Minister Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Gerasimov.
2/ According to the document, which has been published by the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, Wagner Group representative Andrey Troshev informed the MOD leadership that Wagner would be moving its equipment to storage and transfer sites in Russia between 21 June – 5 July.
3/ A VChK-OGPU source says that Russian Air Force Chief Sergey Surovikin, who is reportedly himself an honorary Wagner member, acted as a guarantor of Wagner's good conduct in the operation. However, Surovokin is said to have been aware of the planned mutiny.