How General Surovikin makes money on the war

The Anti-Corruption Foundation has released a new investigation about General Sergei Surovikin, the new commander of Russian troops in Ukraine. We publish this investigation (with English subtitles) and the text by Maria Pevchikh, the head of the ACF investigative unit, dedicated to it.

“General Armageddon? The Syrian Butcher? A great commander of the world’s second army? I don’t think so. General Surovikin, commander of the Russian troops in Ukraine, turned out to be a simple hustler, who uses his wife’s firm to receive cash payments from Putin’s oligarchs. 

Today we released our brand new investigation about the main face of Putin’s war in Ukraine. This decorated general is well-known for his cruelty and ruthlessness. Now he shall be known for his corruption as well.

Surovikin’s wife has owned a sawmill and wood processing plant in the Urals for over 10 years now. In fact, it was discovered back in 2011 by my colleague Leonid Volkov, then a member of the Yekaterinburg city council. The firm still exists, so we decided to check on it.

Turns out Surovikin has monetized his role in the Syrian war quite well. In 2017 he was put in charge of the Russian military operation there. Aside from the war crimes he was casually committing in Syria, he also appears to have had some extracurricular duties.

When Putin visited Syria Surovikin proudly reported that among other liberated targets were two phosphate ore deposits. Why would Putin care? Because his buddy and sponsor Gennady Timchenko was planning to make money there. Wherever Timchenko makes money, Putin gets a cut.

In early 2017 Bashar al-Assad ratified a contract granting Timchenko’s Stroytansgaz exclusive rights to extract and export phosphates from two deposits near Palmyra. There was only one problem: at that moment the Syrian army and government had no control over them.

That’s when the Russian army stepped in. They helped Assad’s government recapture the deposits and Timchenko started extraction within weeks. Timchenko also conveniently got control of a fertilizer plant and the port of Tartus where the Russian military base is located.

This is a very important moment. The phosphates are currently transported as follows: they are first taken by trucks or trains from the deposits near Palmyra either to the fertilizer plant in Khoms or directly to the port of Tartus.

In the port, they are loaded onto ships with switched off tracking beacons. Then they tamper with the documents to make the shipment not appear Syrian anymore, and sell the phosphates to Europe, bypassing the sanctions against both the Syrian government and Timchenko.

You can read more on this scheme in the investigation released by the OCCRP journalists. It is a complex logistical chain that requires constant armed protection and escort in Syria. They are provided by the Syrian army and PMCs, the Wagner PMC, and the Russian army, which is inextricably linked to all of them.

All of this is vital to Timchenko’s business. Otherwise his Syrian firm wouldn't be able to make money: the phosphates simply wouldn't make it to the port, or they wouldn't be allowed out. And this must be what Timchenko’s firm paid Surovikin's wife $1.4 million for. 

That’s the only thing Syrian phosphate exporters and Ural sawmill have in common. The details of the Timchenko-Surovikin deal hardly change the point. Surovikin has made a great living off the war in Syria. And I am sure the same thing will happen in Ukraine. 

This is the essence of the corrupt Putin regime and its generals and oligarchs. Z-swastika on the forehead, Russian flag in one hand, the, and the other hand raking in money.”