According to ACF and photos, General Armageddon lives a lavish lifestyle, having spent £2.7 million on a property in Russia.
Sergey Surovikin, 56, is in charge of Russia’s stumbling campaign in Ukraine. He cultivates a merciless hardman image to go along with his nickname, with a shaven head and stern scowl.
However, the “crook and a hustler” who has filled his deep pockets with “blood-soaked” money is hiding behind his tough-guy persona and is living rich with his lovely wife Anna.
As the commander of forces that killed thousands of civilians in Syria, Putin’s senior general earned the grim moniker.
Investigators from Russia’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) said that he built his fortune here in addition to using horrific weapons like barrel bombs and gas to kill civilians.
In October, General Armageddon took command of the faltering war in Ukraine amid worries that he would bombard the nation using the same strategies as in Syria.
The brutal general’s shady financial dealings have also come to light in the latest probe, as have allegations that they supported a lifestyle much beyond his means.
According to ACF, which was established by prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny, the war in Syria was a chance for Putin and his associates to make money.
Surovikin had deep money, so much so that he and his wife purchased an opulent faux “English estate” property in Russia for £2.7 million.
According to reports, the money he earned also went toward building Putin a massive mansion with a lap dancing den, casino and tunnel leading to a private beach.
Far from being a selfless soldier, Maria Pevchikh, an ACF investigator who has been investigating into Surovikin’s money-making operations in Syria, claimed that he is simply a “crook and hustler.”
“I don’t know what other terms to use for a person who is making money off destroying cities and killing civilians,” she told The Sun Online.
“He is corrupt and interested in his business rather than service to the country and his motivation is personal enrichment and enrichment of his family.
“We wanted to destroy the image that he’s this honourable officer who’s fighting for his beliefs and we wanted to show people that this is a lie.”
When Surovikin arrived in Syria, he started doing business with Gennady Timchenko, one of Putin’s closest associates, who helped finance the building of the despot’s opulent palace on the Black Sea coast.
When the cruel dictator Bashar al-government Assad’s granted Timchenko’s company exclusive rights to mine and export phosphates from two deposits close to Palmyra, the two made money.
His money is very much soaked in blood
Maria Pevchikh
Phosphates, while not glamorous, are a very valuable industry with a significant demand for their use as fertilisers for crops around the world.
Palmyra was at the time an Islamic State stronghold, but Surovikin deployed his men to drive them out.
Then, it’s believed, he recruited vicious Wagner Group mercenaries who were serving as Russia’s group warriors in Syria as security to transport the products out of the country.
According to documents uncovered by the ACF, Timchenko’s company paid Surovikin’s wife Anna £1.15 million via a sawmill company she managed.
Surovikin oversaw the constant targeting of clinics, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure in Idlib, which was held by rebels, while he was in Syria in 2019.
According to Human Rights Watch, the 11-month campaign “showed callous disregard for the lives of the roughly 3 million civilians in the area.”
Pevchikh remarked, “His money is very much soaked in blood.”
The general and his wife then spent the money to support a lifestyle that was significantly more extravagant than what he could have afforded on a military salary.
According to public records, they purchased a £2.7 million property in the ParkVille area of Moscow.
Their combined incomes for the past five years averaged around £100,000 per year, which raised eyebrows.
The enormous house has a gym, a swimming pool, a 430 square foot master bedroom, two car garages, and a separate area for housekeepers.
Pevchikh thinks the general and his wife may have gotten much more money than what is stated in the records.
“I’m pretty sure, on my estimate of how this works, that this is the tip of the iceberg and it looks like there’s some sort of framework agreement that Surovikin will be receiving these sorts of payments regularly,” she said.
“We see them two years in a row and they could now choose through a different channel to process those payments but it looks like Surovikin is on Timchenko’s payroll.”
Although Surovikin’s lifestyle may shock an outsider, Pevchikh claims that it is typical for Russian generals to amass wealth.
“The Russian military elite are insanely corrupt – you just need to look at their assets, their cars, the palaces they build for themselves and their mistresses,” she said.
“These people disclose their official salary but we know that their salary won’t be enough to buy one-tenth of what they actually own.
“They live like kings and sheikhs compared to most government officials. In the case of Surovikin, I’m just adding him to the bunch of other corrupt generals.
“Whoever works to support Putin’s team, they are all doing it for money.”
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