Gen. Sergey Surovikin has just been relieved of his duties as the head of Russia’s aerospace forces, but mystery shrouds his continued role in the armed forces.
So, who is Surovikin? He has spent four decades in the Russian military, earning a reputation for brutality over the course of a career which began with him first seeing service in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
In August 1991, during the unsuccessful coup attempt against former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, soldiers under Surovikin’s command killed three protesters. This led to him spending at least six months in prison, according to a book by the Washington DC-based thinktank the Jamestown Foundation.
By 2004, Surovikin was commanding a unit in the Second Chechen War, and he berated a subordinate so severely that the subordinate took his own life, according to Russian media accounts and at least two think tanks.
Notably, Surovikin also played an instrumental role in Russia’s operations in Syria in the 2010s – during which Russian combat aircraft caused widespread devastation in rebel-held areas – in the very role he was just relieved of: Commander-in-Chief of Russia’s aerospace forces.
In a 2020 report, Human Rights Watch named him as “someone who may bear command responsibility” for the dozens of air and ground attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure in violation of the laws of war” during the 2019-2020 Idlib offensive in Syria.
The attacks killed at least 1,600 civilians and forced the displacement of an estimated 1.4 million people, according to HRW, which cited UN figures.
During his time in Syria, Surovikin was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
In February 2022, Surovikin was sanctioned by the European Union in his capacity as head of the aerospace forces “for actively supporting and implementing actions and policies that undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine as well as the stability or security in Ukraine.”
He was put in charge of Russia’s operations in Ukraine in October 2022, shortly after a major explosion severely damaged the Kerch bridge connecting the annexed Crimean peninsula to mainland Russia.
However, in January, the role was reassigned to Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, and Surovikin was made one of his three deputies.
He has not been seen in public since the short-lived mutiny led by Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in June, fueling unconfirmed rumors of his detention.
CNN