Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ General Sergei Surovikin, who disappeared in apparent disgrace after the Wagner Group's mutiny in June 2023, has been "found another position" with the Commonwealth of Independent States, according to State Duma Deputy and retired Colonel General Viktor Zavarzin. ⬇️

2/ Zavarzin has told the Russian news publication Podem: "[Surovikin] fought well, but the situation has changed.

3/ I know what you know too, that they found him another position, changed it, his chief of staff [General Viktor Afzalov] is fulfilling the commands of the commander-in-chief, he has another position, it's not bad, in the CIS or whatever it's properly called.

4/ But let's wait and see, that's not the main thing. The man was at war, now he is resting, he will probably be on holiday for some time. We'll wait and see. Nothing terrible is happening there."

5/ Although Surovikin has been purged from the Russian Ministry of Defence website, reports suggest that senior Putin allies want to keep him around to counterbalance the power of the Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1699327275844399385

6/ Surovikin was previously the commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces but now appears to have lost this role. However, he remains the Chairman of the Coordination Committee on Air Defence Issues (KKPVO) under the Council of Defence Ministers of the CIS Countries.

7/ The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is the intergovernmental organisation that succeeded the Soviet Union. It has nine members – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with Turkmenistan as an associate state.

8/ The KKPVO was established in 1995 to coordinate air defence activities across the CIS airspace. It meets twice a year in a different CIS country each time, most recently in Samarkand in Uzbekistan in April 2023 to discuss joint training and air defence activities.

9/ Its chairmanship isn't nearly as big a role as being C-in-C of the Russian Airspace Forces was, but it probably offers the Russian government the chance to keep Surovikin around and on the playing field, where his continued influence is likely to be useful.

10/ Either way, Surovikin is likely to be kept on a tight rein. The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that "one of the conditions for ending Surovikin’s house arrest was his obligation not to engage in active public activities and to minimize all contacts until further notice.

11/ "Otherwise, he was threatened with punitive measures. As a hint, attention was drawn to the fact of Prigozhin's unauthorised video message from Africa on 21 August, despite his earlier commitment not to engage in active public activities. How it all ended is known." /end

Sources:
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🔹 pdmnews.ru/33099/
mil.ru/smosng/units/c…
function.mil.ru/news_page/coun…
t.me/vchkogpu/41596