"Goat of release": The Kremlin uses Surovikin's arrest to justify the rebellion of Prigogine - isw

ISW analysts suggest that the top officer could make the Wagner PEC owner stop the uprising, but Surovikin can now accuse the mistakes of the Russian Army to bleach the Kremlin's reputation. The arrest of the General of the Army of the Russian Federation Sergiy Surovikin Kremlin will try to use to explain to the public why the Russian military responded so badly to Prigogine's rebellion. This was reported in the report of the Institute of War Study (ISW) of June 28.

"The Kremlin can use the General of the Russian Federation Army Sergey Surovikin as a goat of release. It can be used to justify a possible restructuring of the Russian military leadership," the report said. According to ISW analysts, Surovikin's arrest on June 28 indicates that the Kremlin is now beginning to carry out in Russia a "cleaning" of the Ministry of Defense from all persons whom it considers disloyal.

According to them, one of the sources in the Russian opposition and two more close sources in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation confirmed the arrest of Surovikin, due to the fact that he supported the position of the leader of PEC "Wagner" during the armed rebellion on June 24.

Officials in the United States were also informed by intelligence that General Surovik knew in advance about the future uprising, but American intelligence could not determine whether Surovika supported Prigogine directly. "It is unclear that Surovikin could urge Prigogine to stop the uprising only a few hours after it began, although it is possible that he made it out of coercion, not through the support of the Russian military leadership.

If the Russian authorities really arrest Surovikin, the Kremlin is likely to use it But his supporters as a goat of release to publicly explain why the Russian military and Russian internal security authorities responded poorly to the uprising, and to justify the possible restructuring of the Russian military leadership, " - writes ISW analysts.