As Putin poses for selfies, the US says Russia may have detained a top general

Days after an aborted uprising in Russia by a mercenary group posed a dramatic challenge to his leadership, President Vladimir V. Putin made public appearances with highly choreographed performances in an attempt to wield power and control, even as US officials said early intelligence reports suggested that a top general had been detained in connection with the failed uprising.

In Moscow, Mr. Putin attended a technology fair on Thursday, sitting in a gaming chair and joking with other panelists on stage. The day before, he walked through a crowd of well-wishers in southern Russia, shaking hands, kissing a girl on the head and posing for selfies. It was a display the Russians had not seen from their leader in years.

“My God, this is Vladimir Putin!” people screamed as the Russian president, flanked by bodyguards, mingled with a crowd of people in the southern city of Derbent on Wednesday, overruling strict social distancing protocols he had adhered to since the start of the pandemic, which included sitting at a very long table, away from visitors.

But amid the Kremlin’s attempts to emphasize popular support for Putin and the message that Russia was back to work, US officials said Russian authorities apparently had a general, Sergei Surovikin, the former commander of the Russian forces in Ukraine. , who according to U.S. officials knew in advance of the uprising of the Wagner mercenary group.

The general has not been seen in public since early Saturday. US officials would not say – or do not know – whether he had been formally arrested or was being held for questioning.

Asked about General Surovikin on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov referred questions to Russia’s Defense Ministry.

A senior diplomat from a NATO country said there was no hard intelligence, but careful comments from Mr. Peskov seemed to confirm the general’s detention. News about General Surovikin’s detention was previously reported by The Financial Times.

Since the short-lived rebellion of Wagner’s chief, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, ended on Saturday, Russian diplomats have been scrambling to reassure allies, including leaders in the Central African Republic, where Wagner deployed thousands of mercenaries. them.

“Russia gave us Wagner; the rest is none of our business,” said Fidèle Gouandjika, a special adviser to Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadéra. Details about Russia’s diplomatic efforts were initially reported by The Wall Street Journal.

While Moscow sought to strengthen alliances abroad, the war in Ukraine continued to rage. Russian shelling killed two people and wounded two others in the southern Kherson region, according to local military records. It said in a statement that the attack “hit a place where civilians came to receive humanitarian aid”. The region has been bombarded by Russian troops for months.

Rescue efforts also ended in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, where a 12th body was pulled from the rubble of a restaurant hit by a Russian missile strike on Tuesday.

Hanna Malyar, a Ukrainian deputy defense minister, said on Thursday that while the country’s forces made progress on the counter-offensive to retake Russian-held territory to the south and east, fighting was “heavy”. Kiev forces moving south have advanced to Berdiansk and Melitopol, two key Russian-held cities in the Zaporizhzhia region, she said, citing gains of about 1,400 meters toward Berdiansk.

She also said Ukrainian troops had gained about 1,300 meters towards Klishchiivka, a village in the eastern region of Donetsk taken by Moscow forces in January. Her claims could not be independently verified.

Mr Putin’s brief but highly publicized encounters with the Russian public this week were a stark departure from the protocols he had established due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For years, layers of protective measures had restricted access to the president. To see him in person, visitors had to quarantine for up to two weeks and submit negative PCR test results. Ministers and foreign leaders had to sit at a long table opposite Putin, adding to the sense of isolation long before he decided to invade Ukraine in February last year.

In the immediate aftermath of the Wagner uprising, a visibly angry Mr. Putin gave televised speeches to the nation, swearing at those he described as traitors and swearing punishment. Since then, the Kremlin has announced that charges against the mutineers would be dropped and Mr Prigozhin would leave for Belarus.

President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus said he had offered the Wagner fighters an “abandoned” military base to use. Satellite images show the rapid construction of what appear to be temporary structures at an abandoned military base in Belarus that could be a location for the fighters. Belarusian state news media also said Mr Prigozhin arrived in the country on Tuesday, but there is no independent confirmation of his whereabouts.

A seemingly optimistic Mr. Putin next showed up at the Moscow tech fair, where he was shown new facial recognition technology and advanced printers, and made fun of a Russian cartoon character, Garbage Toad. The outing took place a day after he was spotted in the southern region of Dagestan sipping local cognac and talking about growing regional tourism.

In his encounters with the public in recent years, Putin rarely got as close as Wednesday with the public. Last year, he got out of his limousine to wave from afar to those in attendance in Kaliningrad. In March, he visited the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Mariupol, a town razed to the ground by his troops, and video footage from the state news media showed him talking to some residents.

Russian state television claimed on its main political talk show on Thursday that Putin had been met in Derbent as a “rock star”, contrary to the Western image of a leader weakened by the Wagner uprising.

The Kremlin played off the meeting in Derbent, trying to portray it as a spontaneous move by a president who couldn’t resist the outpouring of support.

“On the one hand, there is a strong recommendation from specialists,” said Mr. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters in a regular news briefing Thursday, apparently referring to medical advice given to Mr. Putin to maintain social distancing. “On the other hand, there is a firm decision of the president that could not refuse these people.”

Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said Mr Putin has tried to return “to a zone of comfort” after the Wagner uprising.

The message, she said, is that “he’s not hiding in a bunker, he’s here with his people.”

Reporting contributed by Cassandra Vinograd, Alina Lobzina, Stanislav Kozliuk And Monica Proncuk.