25 Facts About Sergey Surovikin

1.

Sergey Vladimirovich Surovikin is a Russian army general and Commander of the Aerospace Forces.

2.

Sergey Surovikin played an important role in the creation of the Main Directorate of the Military Police, a new organisation within the Russian Army.

3.

Sergey Surovikin commanded the Eastern Military District between 2013 and 2017, and in 2017 commanded the Russian group of forces in Syria.

4.

Sergey Surovikin is accredited with turning the tide of the war in Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's favour, and is alleged to have been responsible for strikes on civilian targets during the Russian intervention.

5.

Sergey Surovikin was promoted to the rank of major afterwards.

6.

The conviction was overturned after the investigation concluded that Sergey Surovikin had agreed to give a fellow student a pistol for use in a competition, unaware of its intended purpose.

7.

Sergey Surovikin participated in the Tajikistani Civil War where he commanded a motor rifle battalion.

8.

Sergey Surovikin then became chief of staff of the 92nd Motor Rifle Regiment, chief of staff and commander of the 149th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment and chief of staff of the 201st Motor Rifle Division.

9.

Sergey Surovikin became commander of the 34th Motor Rifle Division at Yekaterinburg.

10.

In March 2004, Sergey Surovikin was accused by Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Chibizov of beating him up for leaving his post to participate in elections as an observer.

11.

Sergey Surovikin was the chief of staff of the 20th Guards Army from 2005.

12.

In November 2008, Sergey Surovikin became head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff.

13.

In September 2017, Sergey Surovikin was cited by Russian media as a likely successor to Viktor Bondarev, who was on 26 September relieved of the position of the Commander of the Aerospace Forces.

14.

TASS pointed out that Sergey Surovikin became the first combined-arms commander in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union to be put in charge of the Russian or Soviet air forces.

15.

Again from January to April 2019, Sergey Surovikin took over as the commander of the contingent of Russian military forces in Syria.

16.

In 2021, Sergey Surovikin was promoted to General of the Army.

17.

On 11 January 2023, Sergey Surovikin was replaced as commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine by Valery Gerasimov, becoming one of Gerasimov's deputies.

18.

In May 2023 Sergey Surovikin was reported to have been "representing interests" of the "Wagner" group in Russia's Ministry of Defense for the last few years already.

19.

In February 2022, Sergey Surovikin was added to the European Union sanctions list for being "responsible 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".

20.

Sergey Surovikin has been awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Order of Military Merit and the Order of Courage three times.

21.

Sergey Surovikin was awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation in December 2017.

22.

Sergey Surovikin is accused of having ordered troops to open fire on pro-democracy protestors in Moscow, during the 1991 Soviet coup d'etat attempt, when three people were killed.

23.

Sergey Surovikin was jailed for six months but was later released without trial by order of President Boris Yeltsin.

24.

In 1995, Sergey Surovikin was found guilty of illegal arms trade.

25.

Sergey Surovikin was sentenced but later let off following allegations that he had been framed.