A top Russian general detained after a mutiny by mercenary tycoon Yevgeny V. Prigozhin has been released, according to two US officials and a person close to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The general, Sergei Surovikin, who is seen as an ally of Mr. Prigozhin and received the nickname “General Armageddon” because of his brutal tactics in Syria, disappeared from the public eye in June after the mercenary leader and members of his Wagner outfit acted against the Russian military leadership.
American officials said the general had a premonition of the uprising, and hours after it began, Russian authorities released a video in which an uncomfortable-looking General Surovikin was shown called on the Wagner fighters to stop.
US officials said that while General Surovikin appeared to have been released from formal detention, it remained unclear whether there were any remaining restrictions on his movement or other limitations imposed by Russian authorities.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday that it was not possible to comment on whether General Surovikin was under investigation.
General Surovikin was released days after Mr. Prigozhin died in a plane crash late last month, the person close to the Russian Defense Ministry said, speaking on condition of anonymity, like US officials, to discuss a sensitive topic.
The general retains his rank to this day and is technically still a military officer, but he no longer has any career prospects, the person said. Russian state news reported last month that General Surovikin had been formally removed as head of Russia’s aerospace force.
On Monday, General Surovikin appeared for the first time since the June mutiny in a photo posted on social media by a news outlet run by a Russian news figure, Ksenia Sobchak. In the photo, the general appears in civilian clothes, wearing sunglasses, a hat and a button-down shirt, walking outside next to his wife in front of an ivy-covered wall. The location is not immediately clear from the photo.
“General Sergei Surovikin is not: alive, healthy, at home with his family in Moscow,” read a post on the Telegram messaging app channel associated with Ms. Sobchak.
Aleksei A. Venediktov, who led the liberal Echo radio station in Moscow until it was shut down by the Kremlin last year, wrote on Monday that General Surovikin was at home with his family.
“He is on vacation and is at the disposal of the Ministry of Defense,” Mr. Venediktov posted on his Telegram channel.
From October to January, General Surovikin was the top Russian officer in charge of operations in Ukraine. He oversaw the withdrawal of Russian forces from Kherson and the transition to a defensive strategy, which included the construction of a wall of extensive defenses known as the “Surovikin line” that blocked the forces of Ukraine in their counter-offensive.
Mr. Prigozhin knew General Surovikin because Wagner’s fighters had served in Syria with Russian forces while he was the top commander there. The mercenary leader praised the general’s appointment last year, calling him a legendary figure and Russia’s most capable military commander.
But in January, the Kremlin sidelined General Surovikin, placing the chief of the general staff, Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, as commander in charge of Ukrainian forces. The change marks the beginning of a broader loss of power for Mr. Prigozhin, who soon clashed with General Gerasimov and the Russian defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, while Wagner’s forces suffered heavy losses in an attempt to capture the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine.
Those tensions ultimately led Mr. Prigozhin to launch the short-lived mutiny, which he said was aimed at ousting two Russian defense leaders, not toppling President Vladimir V. Putin.
As speculation about General Surovikin’s whereabouts swirled in July, a top lawmaker who heads the Russian Parliament’s defense committee told a reporter that the general was “resting.”
Mr. Prigozhin was killed on August 23, when a private plane carrying him and other Wagner leaders from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed in the Tver region of Russia. US officials say they suspect an explosion on the plane caused the crash.
The Kremlin called Western suggestions that Mr. Putin was involved in the incident a “complete lie.”
Valeria Safronova contributed to the report.
