Did Putin Fire Russia's Top General? What We Know

As rumors swirled that Russian President Vladimir Putin had dismissed his top general, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, Moscow has released a video that appears to show him at a briefing on the war in Ukraine on Sunday.

Gerasimov hadn't been seen in public since a failed mutiny led by Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. On June 24, Prigozhin declared a "march of justice" calling for the resignations of Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu over their handling of the war in Ukraine. The uprising came to an abrupt end after the Kremlin announced negotiations between Prigozhin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko had taken place and that the Wagner group leader had agreed to go to Belarus.

After days of being absent from public view, some Russian military bloggers and prominent figures on social network Telegram suggested that Gerasimov, 67, had been removed from his post. Those claims were repeated by Western outlets, including the Daily Mail, as well as the Moscow Times.

Citing Rybar, a Telegram channel that reports on the war in Ukraine, the Moscow Times reported that Gerasimov formally retains his post as Chief of the General Staff, but "has nothing to do with resolving issues at the front."

That role, according to Russian military bloggers and Rybar, has been handed to Colonel-General Mikhail Teplinsky, 54, who took over as commander of the Airborne Forces in June 2022, and became deputy commander of a grouping in Ukraine in April.

Rybar's post was published on June 28, four days after Prigozhin's failed mutiny.

On Saturday, pro-Kremlin Russian military blogger Vladimir Romanov appeared to confirm that while Gerasimov is formally in charge of the war, Teplinsky is the one running operations on the Russian side.

"The armed rebellion of PMC 'Wagner' became the reason for large-scale purges in the ranks of the RF (Russian Federation) Armed Forces and a crash test of the ministry for loyalty," the Rybar post said.

But on Monday, Russia's defense ministry published a video that purportedly showed Gerasimov as the man in charge. It said he was listening to a report on Sunday about Ukrainian missile attacks in the Crimea, Rostov and Kaluga regions at a meeting attended by top generals—his first public appearance since the aborted mutiny.

In the video, Gerasimov is shown listening to a report from First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Colonel General Viktor Afzalov, on "the destruction of four Ukrainian ballistic targets," the defense ministry said in a statement.

"According to the report of Colonel General Viktor Afzalov, two S-200 missiles were destroyed by air defense systems, and two similar missiles were intercepted using electronic countermeasures. There are no casualties and no damage."

The defense ministry said Gerasimov ordered the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate and other officials to identify "the storage sites and launch positions of missiles and other enemy strike weapons to plan a preemptive strike," the ministry said.

It noted that Gerasimov instructed officials "to take additional measures to increase the protection of facilities from air strikes as soon as possible."

Newsweek has contacted Russia's defense ministry for comment via email.

Mick Ryan, a retired major general in the Australian army, suggested that keeping Gerasimov on as Chief of the General Staff is a mistake for Putin.

"Never get in the way of your enemy making mistakes. Leaving Gerasimov in place is another of Putin's big errors. While Gerasimov is loyal, he has been a disaster for the Russian military," tweeted Ryan.