Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree removing General Sergei Surovikin from the board of directors of Roscosmos, the first news about the former commander of Russian invasion forces in more than six months.

In addition to Surovikin, Andrii Grigoriev, head of the Fund for Advanced Research, was also dismissed from the board of the Russian space agency “Roscosmos”. Surovikin was a member of Roscosmos’ board of directors by virtue of his previous position as commander of the Russian Air Force, which Moscow officially calls “aerospace”.

The resolution was published on the official legal information portal of the Russian government “on the termination of the powers of A. I. Grigoriev and S. V. Surovikin, members of the supervisory board of the state space corporation Roscosmos,” the document says.

Vladimir Putin officially dismissed General Surovikin from the position of commander of the Russian Air and Space Forces on August 23 last year, confirming then the information about this that appeared the day before, RIA Novosti agency.

The fact that Surovikin was officially dismissed from his post was first announced by Russian journalist Oleksii Venediktov, former editor-in-chief of the radio station “Echo of Moscow”, which was banned by the Russian authorities after the start of the “special forces”. operation”.

General Armageddon has not been in public since September 2023

General Surovikin was not seen in public for more than a month after the uprising of Wagner’s mercenaries, provoked by Yevhen Prigozhin, several sources reported that he was arrested on suspicion of supporting the uprising of the “Wagnerians”.

However, the Kremlin systematically refuses to confirm this.

Surovikin was appointed by Vladimir Putin as commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces in 2017. In October 2022, Putin chose Surovikin as the commander-in-chief of the forces invading Ukraine.

But last January, the Kremlin leader reshuffled the leadership of the invasion forces, appointing General Valery Gerasimov, head of the Russian General Staff, as their commander.

Surovikin successfully led an organized retreat from the eastern bank of the Dnieper to the Kherson region and was considered a competent general with good results. He also ordered a massive expansion of Russian defense lines in eastern and southern Ukraine, which ultimately halted Ukraine’s offensive in June 2023.

Russian state media confirmed Surovikin’s dismissal as commander of the Moscow Air and Space Forces on the same day Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash.

The last public image of Surovikin dates back to September 15 of last year, when the Kommersant financial newspaper published a photo of him, in which it is reported that he is in Algeria as part of a delegation of the Ministry of Defense from Moscow.

News of his removal from Roscosmos’ board of directors is the most-read article on Tuesday by TASS, Russia’s largest state-run news agency.

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