Putin draws bizarre smiley face and poses for selfies, as Kremlin 'cleans house' after failed Wagner Group march

29 June 2023, 16:47

Vladimir Putin has delighted some Russians by drawing a smiley face on an interactive smartboard and taking selfies.

Putin was taking part in the 'forum of the agency of strategic initiatives' on Thursday when he was asked to draw on the board.

Event organisers reminded the Russian president that he had drawn a cat on a similar, foreign, interactive board ten years ago - and asked him to draw on a Russian version.

Putin's strange-looking effort appeared to satisfy onlookers at the event, while he also took selfies with happy supporters.

But it was no odder than his drawing on the foreign board ten years ago. The Russian despot chose to draw a cat's backside on his outing at a school in the Urals city of Kurgan in 2013.

Read more: Russian army’s General ‘Armageddon’ Surovikin ‘arrested’ amid reports he knew of Wagner Group's coup plans

Read more: Putin faces 'deeply unstable' Russia after Wagner rebellion 'erodes' image of power and Kremlin is forced to deny he ran

His latest drawing came as the fallout from Yevgeny Prigozhin's failed Wagner Group uprising on Saturday continued to rumble on.

Several reports in Russian and Western media claimed that Sergey Surovikin, the second in command of the Russian regular forces in Ukraine, had been arrested, because of rumoured plans to oust defence minister Sergei Shoigu.

One source told local outlet the Moscow Times that the general’s arrest was “in the context of Prigozhin", the Wagner group boss.

They added: "Apparently, he chose Prigozhin's side during the uprising, and they've gotten him by the balls."

Pro-Kremlin political consultant Sergei Markov said: "Surovikin is probably being interrogated for many hours over many days. Not because he is the main suspect, but because he is the best informed.

"He was the main point of contact between the defence ministry and Wagner, so he knows more than anyone".

Surovikin, who commanded Russian forces in Ukraine for three months up until January 2023, has not been seen in public since the day the attempted Wagner coup was launched.

But the general's daughter insisted that everything was "fine".

She told local media outlet Baza: "Honestly, no, nothing has happened to him, he’s at work.

"When did he appear in the media every day? He never made any statements every day.

"As I understand, everything is sort of flowing as things normally happen. Everyone is at their workplace, everything is fine."

Surovikin's apparent arrest comes as part of Putin's administration clean-up of the security forces after the failed uprising.

A Western government official claimed that "Putin knew about [Prigozhin’s uprising plans] in advance, as we understand, and so could prepare to a certain extent,” a Western government official told the Financial Times.

"He was able to see who did what on that day. And he’s now cleaning house."

In the war itself, Ukraine claimed on Thursday that it was continuing to make ground around the Donbas in the east of the country, as it continued to push back Russian forces slowly.

Russia claimed that its army had killed two Ukrainian generals in a bombing attack, on the same days as an attack on the Donbas city of Kramatorsk that claimed the lives of 12 civilians, including three children.