Kremlin spokesman tells AFP journalist not to ask him about Russian General Sergey Surovikin
In a daily briefing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a journalist from the French news agency AFP that she could not ask him a question about Russian General Sergey Surovikin. The Telegram channel You Listened to Mayak reported that the journalist said the following:
Yesterday, Sergey Shoigu did not respond to a journalist’s question about a possible investigation into General Surovikin. Can I ask you that question?
To which Peskov replied:
No, you cannot.
After Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion in June, there were reports that Surovikin and a number of other high-ranking officers had been suspended from service and detained. While this was never officially confirmed, he disappeared from the public eye after the rebellion.
On September 4, at a briefing in Sochi after the Russian-Turkish talks, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu was asked whether Surovikin was under investigation. Shoigu did not respond to the question.
Soon after, the Russian media personality Ksenia Sobchak reported that Surovikin had been released and published a photo that appeared to show Surovikin. She wrote that he is “alive, healthy, and home, and with his family in Moscow.” The New York Times’ sources also said that he had been released.