Russian General Sergei Surovikin was dismissed due to his connections with the Wagner Group.
He has re-emerged during an official visit to Algeria this week.
Moscow has not issued any statements regarding this encounter.
Russian General Sergei Surovikin, who was dismissed due to his ties to the Wagner Group, has reappeared after months of absence during an official visit to Algeria. Images of his meeting with Algerian authorities were published on Tuesday on the Facebook page of the Great Mosque of Oran and this Friday in Russian media.
In the photos, the general, an iconic commander of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, is seen in civilian attire alongside Russian officers in military uniform and the Imam of the mosque, Abou Abdallah Zebar. “A high-level Russian delegation visited the Great Mosque Abdelhamid Ben Badis and was received by the Director of Religious Affairs and the Imam of the Great Mosque,” the mosque announced in a message accompanying these photos. Moscow has not commented on this visit to Algeria.
Disappeared since the Wagner coup attempt
Sergei Surovikin had been the subject of speculation, having disappeared from the public eye since the aborted rebellion by the Wagner Group last June. According to several Russian media outlets, he was removed from his position as commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces in August, shortly before the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash.
The general was considered close to the Wagner Group’s leader, although he did not officially support Wagner’s mutiny. During the 24-hour revolt, Sergei Surovikin called on the rebels to “stop” and return to their barracks “before it was too late.”
According to LCI commentator Pierre Servent, the general “played a double game”: “It is certainly the fact that he played on both sides that explains why he is still alive,” he believes.
A veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the second Chechen war in the 2000s, Sergei Surovikin participated in the Russian campaign in Syria in 2015 before becoming one of the key commanders of the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.