Colonel General Sergei Surovikin attends a briefing in the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia, on June 9, 2017. Rumors about his whereabouts — and his potential role in the short-lived insurrection — have been swirling in recent days. CNN has reached out to the Kremlin and Russian Ministry of Defense for comment on Surovikin’s whereabouts. Surovikin first served in Afghanistan in the 1980s before commanding a unit in the Second Chechen War ​in 2004. He was the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces during Russia’s operations in Syria, which saw Russian combat aircraft causing widespread devastation in rebel-held areas.

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Persons: Sergei Surovikin, Pavel Golovkin, Sergey Surovikin, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, —, Surovikin, “, Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin, Peskov, Putin, “ Surovikin, Alexey Venediktov –, –, Sergey Markov, ”, Surovikin “, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s, Mikhail Gorbachev, ​ Organizations: Russian Defense Ministry, Moscow Times, CNN, Kremlin, Russian Ministry of Defense, General Staff, Defense, Ministry, Echo, New York Times, Russian Aerospace Forces, Washington DC, Jamestown Foundation, Human Rights Watch Locations: Moscow, Russia, Russian, Surovikin, Echo Moscow, Rostov, Afghanistan, Syria, Idlib