Russian General Valery Gerasimov has re-emerged in public more than two weeks after the failed uprising by Wagner’s group, during which there was much speculation about his fate because of his ties to Yevgeny Prigozhin.

On Monday morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense released a video in which Gerasimov was informed about a series of Ukrainian missile strikes on Crimea, Rostov and Kaluga regions.

Moscow said that this video was from a military meeting on Sunday. Gerasimov was presented with his current positions of Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and Commander of the Joint Group of Forces in Ukraine.

“The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, tasked the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate and the heads of the command post of the consolidated group to organize systematic work to identify storage and training sites, as well as launch points for S-200 missiles and similar enemy attack weapons and plan them preventive destruction,” the Ministry of Defense reported.

Gerasimov’s appearance comes after several Russian military bloggers said the other day that he had been removed from command of the Russian campaign in Ukraine, which he led last December.

After Prigozhin’s uprising, Gerasimov was not seen in public, nor was his deputy, General Sergei Surovikin, known as “Armageddon”, who was rumored to have been detained and interrogated for knowing about the “coup”. supported him. It is also rumored that Deputy Serhiy Shoigu, Minister of Defense Yunus-bek Yevkurov would disappear from the public eye and would be dismissed.

Prigozhin would like to capture Gerasimov

It will be recalled that Wagner’s mercenaries were stopped on their way by Yevgeny Prigozhin before they reached Moscow, where the leader of the paramilitary formation announced a break with the military leadership of Russia. Soon after, the Kremlin announced that it would drop the treason charges and Prigozhin would move to Belarus.

Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin originally planned to kidnap Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Geraismov during a visit they were planning to the southern region bordering Ukraine, Western officials said, the Wall Street Journal quoted CNN as saying. .

But according to Western officials, the Federal Security Service (FSB) learned of the plan two days before its execution, prompting Prigozhin to improvise an alternative plan.

In fact, over the past two weeks, American intelligence services have gathered information that Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning to act against Russia’s military leadership.

However, tension in the Russian military leadership existed even before Prigozhin’s uprising. There were many changes against the background of internal tension.

Colonel General Mykhailo Teplinsky, who was replaced as head of Russia’s air force earlier this year, is likely to return to the top role in April, signaling strong internal tensions over Russia’s military strategy on the Ukrainian front. defense in his estimation at that time.