Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the former commander of the Russian invasion force who is believed to be in custody in Moscow on suspicion of treason, was a secret “VIP member” of the Wagner Group, according to documents obtained exclusively by CNN.

The documents show that Surovikin, dubbed “General Armageddon” by Russian media, has a personal number for a mercenary group founded in 2014 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, along with at least 30 other Russian military and intelligence officers.

The Dossier Center, an independent Russian investigative site, claims they were “VIP members” of a military group created by Prigozhin after the illegal annexation of Crimea and the start of the separatist conflict in Donbas 9 years ago.

Surovikin, who has not appeared in public since Saturday after recording a video appeal to Prigozhin’s mercenaries to end the military mutiny, was known to be close to Wagner’s group, but this is the first time he has known he was actually a member of the paramilitary organization.

A Russian air force general known for his brutal tactics, Yevgeny Prigozhin repeatedly praised Surovikin during his leadership of the Russian invasion force from last October until early this year.

Immediately after his appointment on October 11, he led the withdrawal of Russian troops from the western bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region, which ended exactly one month later. He received praise, including from experienced Russian military bloggers, for the organized manner of the withdrawal without incident.

CNN notes that it is unclear what Prigozhin’s group “VIP member” status entails and whether it entails any financial compensation.

Sources in Russia report that Surovikin was placed in the infamous Lefortovo pre-trial detention center.

It will be recalled that late on Wednesday, journalists of The Moscow Times wrote about the detention of the former commander of the invasion forces with reference to two sources close to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“The situation with him was not “okay” for the authorities. I can’t say anything else,” one of the sources commented on the reason for the arrest. “In the context of Prigozhin, one gets the impression that he [Surovkin] chose a side [mercenarilor Wagner] and they caught him by the “balls,” said a second source.

Earlier, Russian military blogger Volodymyr Romanov wrote on his Telegram channel that the general was arrested on June 25, the day after the mutiny, and taken to Lefortovo, the notorious FSB prison in Moscow, which was used by the KGB during the Soviet Union.

The editor-in-chief of the radio station “School of Moscow” Oleksiy Venediktov, in turn, stated that Surovikin has not been in touch with his family for 3 days, allegedly confirming the information of the Romanov blogger.

General Surovikin’s family denies that he is in custody

On Thursday, the general’s daughter Veronika denied that he had been arrested to the administrators of the Baza Telegram channel, one of the most popular sources of information in Russia.

“General [Surovikin] no one arrested him and everything is fine with him. He is at work,” she said, also quoted by the Ura News news site. Her father’s absence from the “information space” is not unusual.

Surovikin’s assistant, colonel-general Andriy Yudin, in connection with the journalists of “Ura News” denied the information that he is in custody together with his boss.

“I’m on vacation. Home,” he summarized.

The Kremlin refuses to answer what happened to the ex-commander of the invasion forces

Asked again about Surovikin’s fate during his press conference on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to take questions from Russian journalists, referring them to the defense ministry, as he has done in the past on sensitive topics.

However, literally a day earlier, Peskov denied the information that appeared in the Western press, according to which the general is suspected of treason.

“Now there will be many different speculations, gossip and so on around these events. I think this is one of those examples,” he said during a press conference on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Bloomberg agency, citing a source close to the case, wrote that military prosecutors questioned Surovikin for several days in connection with information about the preparation of Wagner’s mutiny.

Bloomberg’s source, however, said Surovikin is not in prison and that investigators are being careful not to antagonize other generals in the military who admire his achievements.

Current and former US officials have speculated that Prigozhin would not have launched the rebellion if he did not believe that others in key positions would support him, leading them to believe that the mercenary leader had internal support to carry out the rebellion.

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