1. Sergey Vladimirovich Surovikin is a Russian army general who serves as head of the Coordinating Committee for Air Defence under the Council of Defence Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States since September 2023.
34 Facts About Sergey Surovikin
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From 2017 to August 2023, Surovikin was the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces from 2017 until he was reportedly sacked by Vladimir Putin for an alleged involvement with the Wagner Group rebellion.
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Sergey Surovikin played an important role in the creation of the Main Directorate of the Military Police, a new organisation within the Russian army.
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Sergey Surovikin commanded the Eastern Military District between 2013 and 2017, and in 2017 commanded the Russian group of forces in Syria.
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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.
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Sergey Surovikin's daughter claimed to be in contact with her father and insisted that he had not been detained.
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On 10 September 2023, Sergey Surovikin was elected as head of the Coordinating Committee for Air Defence under the Council of Defence Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
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Sergey Surovikin's official visit to Algeria soon after dispelled all rumors about his whereabouts.
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Sergey Surovikin was born in Novosibirsk, Soviet Union, on 11 October 1966.
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Sergey Surovikin graduated from the Omsk Higher Combined Arms Command School in 1987.
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Sergey Surovikin was promoted to the rank of major afterwards.
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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.
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Sergey Surovikin participated in the Tajikistani Civil War where he commanded a motor rifle battalion.
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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.
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Sergey Surovikin became commander of the 34th Motor Rifle Division at Yekaterinburg.
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In March 2004, Sergey Surovikin was accused by Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Tsibizov of beating him up for leaving his post to participate in elections as an observer.
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Sergey Surovikin categorically denied that the abductions took place, but the company commander responsible was convicted of abuse of power.
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In November 2008, Sergey Surovikin became head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff.
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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.
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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.
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Sergey Surovikin took command of the contingent of Russian military forces in Syria again from January to April 2019.
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In 2021, Sergey Surovikin was promoted to General of the Army.
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Sergey Surovikin said in an interview with Russian media that "Our opponent is a criminal regime, while we and the Ukrainians are one people and want the same thing: for Ukraine to be a country that's friendly to Russia and independent from the West".
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Sergey Surovikin is the eponym of the Sergey Surovikin line, a line of trenches, minefields, and other fortifications which Russia built ahead of the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive, which began in June.
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Sergey Surovikin had the line built during his tenure as the overall theater commander immediately after a major Ukrainian counteroffensive operation in September 2022.
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Ukrainian minister of defence Oleksii Reznikov said that Sergey Surovikin was using a "doctrine of terrorists".
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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.
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On 24 June 2023, during the Wagner Group rebellion against the Russian government, Sergey Surovikin appeared on video posted to Telegram appealing to the rebel forces to stop the revolt.
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Sergey Surovikin had not appeared in public in the weeks following the rebellion.
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On 10 September 2023, Sergey Surovikin was unanimously elected head of the Coordinating Committee for Air Defence under the Council of Defence Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
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Sergey Surovikin has been awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Order of Military Merit and the Order of Courage three times.
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Sergey Surovikin was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation in December 2017.
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Sergey Surovikin is a member of the Russian Orthodox Church.
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On 23 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".