Commander-in-Chief Sergei Surovikin - Putin instructed "General Surovoy" to save Russia in Ukraine
The young aviation commander got the opportunity to do what he does best - organize battles on the ground.
Even people who are infinitely far from the army and navy are already clear that by this autumn our special operation in Ukraine has gone somewhere completely different from where the Kremlin initiators of this military-political idea dreamed of sending it in February. The front line at the end of the eighth month of fighting stood up almost tightly. And if in some places it even slightly changes its configuration, then more often it is in the exact opposite direction from our good intentions dated February 2022.
Under these conditions, it is even somehow embarrassing to recall the main tasks that were originally set by President Vladimir Putin for the Russian troops going on a military campaign. Let me remind you that only two of them have been declared: complete demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. Alas, the achievement of such goals by today, in my opinion, has disappeared in the thick powder smoke of Donbass, Kherson and Kharkov. And also - in the thick of the political and propaganda fog enveloping the events there.
Because what kind of demilitarization are we talking about now, if since February the NATO bloc has been openly dumping mountains of weapons unthinkable before on the neighboring republic? And the military industry of the alliance for years to come is inundated with orders for the manufacture of new ultra-modern arsenals. Which, no doubt, when ready from American and European factories, will immediately go in the same direction.
It is simply impossible to kill all this “to zero”. How impossible it is with an epic sword-treasurer just like that, without first striking a magic finger, to cut off every single head from the fabulous Serpent-Gorynych. Because, no matter how much you wave your miracle blade, new enemy heads spewing fire and flame immediately grow in their place.
And what kind of decisive denazification should commanders and officers-political workers tell Russian soldiers in the trenches, sending them to mortal combat? After all, it is obvious that a huge part of the Ukrainian population on the other side of the front has long turned away from Russia. Yes, as a result of the devastating human losses suffered by this country. Yes, after realizing the future hopelessness of life that threatens almost every survivor among the multiplying ruins on the site of factories and plants.
But what does it change? All the same, the Ukrainians who realized all this today are closer to our enemies than to us. And that means closer to their Nazi defenders.
And it is impossible to convince these misguided Ukrainians. In any case, until the time when every single one of their cities and villages is under our control. However, the further, the weaker one believes in the achievability of such a result. Unless, of course, the situation at the front continues to develop as it has developed to this day.
Probably, the key tasks of the Kremlin troops should have been changed long ago. From those that became semi-mythical after half of the world entered the war with us, to simple and clear: “Finish off the enemy in his own lair!”. In whatever European or North American capital this lair turned out to be during the hostilities.
At least one country - Ukraine - is guaranteed to disappear from the political map of the world, and not just turn out to be "denazified" and "demilitarized", but sovereign. Well, yes. Ukraine will not.
At the same time, what remains of this previously wonderful country will certainly become part of Russia. Whether someone likes it in Kyiv (and beyond these borders of the republic captured by the Nazis!) Or not. Because - and what in return?
Otherwise, Russia will become someone's part. Or what will remain of our country in the end is hotter than the flaring up battle.
How else? The increasingly threatening flywheel of front-line events leaves neither us nor the Ukrainians with any other options except for the two listed. And the special operation itself, right before our eyes, menacingly rolls over the framework of the relatively limited format of this battle originally conceived by the Kremlin.
I have no doubt that this is how the Kremlin sees everything now. And it is precisely with such a measure, I have no doubt, that they approach the choice of those who, in fact, have to entrust the fate of not even a special operation. Russia itself.
The other day, 55-year-old General of the Army Sergei Surovikin was nominated for the role of savior by the president , for his very difficult and quick to punish character, he was nicknamed "General Surov" in his subordinate troops.
In comments on this decision by Putin, many focused on the fact that Surovikin, who previously led the Southern Group, which has been successfully fighting for Kherson since February, is now leading all Russian troops in the former territories of Ukraine. I think it is hardly worth paying special attention to this fact. If only because the united group in our area existed before. From April, it was led by Hero of Russia General of the Army Alexander Dvornikov . Concurrently, he is the commander of the Southern Military District, territorially closest to Ukraine.
Apparently, this did not end well for Dvornikov. Judging by the state of affairs at the front, he failed to cope with the coordination of the efforts of all the troops of the Ministry of Defense, which by that time had stretched from Kharkov to Kherson, as well as the troops of the Russian Guard, the Wagnerites, the Kadyrovites, and the corps of the People's Militia of Donbass.
Perhaps the fault is the insufficient status of the commander of only the troops of the military district in Dvornikov's case in such a military leadership. It is clear that in the matter of coordinating efforts at the front, he definitely had to enter into conflict relations with military leaders sitting much higher than him. For it is they who decide which units and formations, as well as which equipment to send at the disposal of the commander of the combined group.
I do not rule it out: Dvornikov's heated disputes could happen with the Moscow command of the Russian Guard. Or with the same Ramzan Kadyrov , whose independent character and personal closeness to Putin began to appear too prominently in the events in Ukraine. And you never know who else?
Perhaps the result of such military-administrative difficulties was the fact noted at the beginning of the summer: according to American intelligence, approximately from that time on, the commander of the combined group stopped appearing at the front. Coincidentally or not, but just from that time our problems with the special operation in Ukraine, which ended in a retreat from the Kharkov region that looked like a flight, began to grow.
It turns out that here it was the turn of Army General Surovikin to accept a heavy inheritance. Why was he chosen?
Firstly, whatever one may say, but in addition to commanding the Southern Group, he is also the commander-in-chief. True, the Aerospace Forces, and not the Ground Forces. Which, it would seem, would be more logical in this context.
But be that as it may, in the military hierarchy, any commander-in-chief in status is much higher than any commander of a military district. And in a military environment, the status of an office chair is often much more significant than the personal authority of the most honored general, but of a lower rank. After all, the principle: “I am the boss, you are a fool” has not yet been canceled in the Armed Forces.
Hence the conclusion: Surovikin with coordination at the front can turn out better than it happened with Dvornikov, who was removed from this case.
But, I suppose, even the status of the new commander in this appointment is not the main thing. The main thing is that, as far as one can judge, Putin trusts this new commander almost unlimitedly. The extremely intricate windings of Surovikin's military biography convince of this.
At the end of the USSR, in 1987, he graduated with a gold medal from the Omsk Higher Combined Arms Command School named after M.V. Frunze . Further - he quickly skipped all the steps of a surprisingly successful infantry commander: platoon commander, company commander.
In 1989, he almost died during the exercises, saving his subordinates. The officer himself sat down at the levers of an infantry fighting vehicle with a full load of ammunition that suddenly flared up. And risking his life, he drove her away from his confused soldiers.
Four years after graduation, when the Soviet Union was collapsing in the blood and mass betrayal of its own leadership, Captain Surovikin already commanded a battalion in the famous "court" 2nd Guards Taman Division near Moscow.
It was his battalion, on the orders of Minister of Defense Marshal Dmitry Yazov , on the night of August 20-21, 1991, rushed along the avenues of the capital to the White House, where the most notorious Yeltsinists and thousands of Muscovites deceived by their political chatter under the guise of a "people's revolution" completed the defeat of the state writhing in agony .
In the tunnel on the Garden Ring, a column of infantry fighting vehicles stopped in front of an angry crowd. Surovikin from the armor tried to appeal to the mind of the distraught "revolutionaries". He fired twice into the air with his service pistol. With twelve BMPs broke out of the tunnel. When trying to still hold back the rest of the cars, three young people fell under the tracks. Those who were later completely bewildered Mikhail Gorbachev , to the laughter of the chickens, by his decree declared the Heroes of the Soviet Union so carefully destroyed by them.
Surprisingly, even after the victory of the Yeltsinists, Surovikin's military career did not end there. However, he spent seven whole months in custody while the preliminary investigation was underway. The charge of treason was dropped only after the battalion commander managed to prove that, to the best of his ability, he only carried out the orders of the command. And, fortunately, he continued to serve.
Then he commanded regiments and divisions, first in Yekaterinburg, and then in Chechnya. He headed the 20th Combined Arms Army. He served as chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff. He was deputy commander in succession in three military districts. Since 2013, he himself commanded the Eastern Military District.
In March 2017, he led our grouping in Syria. It was under Surovikin in that war that Russia achieved a decisive turning point. For this he became a Hero of Russia and, according to some reports, was very close to Putin. So much so that immediately upon his return from Syria, he received the standard of the Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces from the hands of the President. The first primordial motorized rifleman in Russian history stood at the head of our entire military aviation!
In itself, this was the first sign of the head of state's highest confidence in General Surovikin. And the second such sign, obviously, should be considered the circumstances under which the new presidential favorite stood at the head of our united group of troops in Ukraine. On October 7, 2022, on his 70th birthday, Putin took the time to call Surovikin himself and announce his new appointment. This is definitely a sign.
Now, with this very young general for both of his military posts, everything is simple. If he succeeds and wins, it is very likely that at least he will be able to replace General of the Army Valery Gerasimov as Chief of the General Staff. As a maximum, it threatens, in my opinion, to stagger the ministerial chair even under Sergei Shoigu himself . Moreover, in many respects it is too obvious for society that Sergey Kuzhugetovich's failed work in the "Ukrainian direction" Putin simply cannot be satisfied with.
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