In the midst of a ‘ongoing purge’ by defence officials, Moscow is said to have severed connections with yet another officer in the top military ranks.
The 106th Guards Airborne division’s commander, Major General Vladimir Seliverstov, a Russian paratrooper, has been relieved of his duties, according to numerous Russian media sites on Saturday.
The well-connected Telegram channel Military Informant claimed his
He was, an insider said, ‘not used to being silent’ when it came to defending his personnel fighting in Bakhmut, a city gutted by war in eastern Ukraine.
The claim – also reported by the military-linked Telegram channel VChK-OGPU – has not been confirmed by the Russian Military of Defence.
Seliverstov would be the latest top-ranking military official to be suspended, detained or disappeared in recent weeks, with some estimates putting it up to 11.
The commander’s removal ‘may be a part of an ongoing purge of insubordinate commanders by the Russian military command,’ the Washington DC-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think-tank said on Saturday.
‘The corrosion of the Russian chain of command in Ukraine is accelerating,’ the think-tank added.
Since a failed mutiny led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the private mercenary group Wagner, earlier this month, Russia’s military has been under the spotlight.
The ISW says that Prigozhin’s rebellion, however short-lived, may have set a ‘precedent for insubordination that can hollow out support for the Russian military command among senior officers’.
Prigozhin, often called ‘Putin’s chef’ due to his catering contracts with President Vladimir Putin, had increasingly accused the Russian military of back-stabbing and carelessness before he staged a coup on June 23.
According to the ISW, other fired generals include Maj Gen Ivan Popov who on his way out accused military bosses of ‘hitting us from the rear’.
In a leaked four-minute farewell speech to his troops shared on social media by Russian Duma member Andrey Gurulyov, Popov says he ended up in a ‘difficult situation’ with army chiefs.
He had long laid bare the issues riddling the army, including murky command chains, a lack of counter-battery systems and the excessive deaths Russia is facing on the frontlines of Ukraine, among others.
‘Apparently, in connection with this, the senior commanders felt some kind of danger in me and swiftly, in a single day’s light, concocted an order from the Minister of Defense that removed me from the deployment and got rid of me,’ Maj Gen Popov said in one translation published by The New York Times.
‘It was necessary either to keep quiet and be a coward,’ he added, ‘or to say it the way it is.’
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in a weekly intelligence update that the speech was intended only for his own soldiers.
‘Popov’s comments draw attention to serious disaffection many officers likely harbour towards the senior military leadership,’ defence officials added.
By whittling down Russia’s military command, the ISW suggested military leaders may be trying to openly ‘punish’ and ‘dissuade’ its critics.
Among other Russian officers whose fates remain unclear in the wake of the Wagner mutiny is General Sergei Surovikin.
Surovikin, the head of the air force who has links to Prizoghin, hasn’t been publicly seen in weeks.
Some Western intelligence believes that the second-in-command of the Russian armed forces had advance knowledge of the rebellion.
But now he is, according to one Russian lawmaker, Andrei Kartapolov, simply ‘taking a rest’.