By&nbsp;Andrew Osborn
LONDON (Reuters) -&nbsp;Russia's&nbsp;most&nbsp;senior&nbsp;generals&nbsp;have&nbsp;dropped&nbsp;out&nbsp;of&nbsp;public&nbsp;view&nbsp;following&nbsp;a&nbsp;failed&nbsp;mercenary&nbsp;mutiny&nbsp;aimed&nbsp;at&nbsp;toppling&nbsp;the&nbsp;top&nbsp;brass,&nbsp;amid&nbsp;a&nbsp;drive&nbsp;by&nbsp;President&nbsp;Vladimir&nbsp;Putin&nbsp;to&nbsp;reassert&nbsp;his&nbsp;authority&nbsp;and&nbsp;unconfirmed&nbsp;reports&nbsp;of at&nbsp;least&nbsp;one&nbsp;arrest.
Valery Gerasimov,&nbsp;Russia's&nbsp;top&nbsp;general, has not appeared in&nbsp;public&nbsp;or on state TV since the aborted&nbsp;mutiny&nbsp;on Saturday when&nbsp;mercenary&nbsp;chief Yevgeny Prigozhin demanded Gerasimov be handed over. He has not been mentioned in a defence ministry press release since June 9 either.
Gerasimov, 67, is the commander of&nbsp;Russia's&nbsp;war in Ukraine,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the holder of&nbsp;one&nbsp;of&nbsp;Russia's&nbsp;three "nuclear briefcases," according to some Western military analysts.
Absent from&nbsp;view&nbsp;too is General Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian press for&nbsp;his&nbsp;aggressive tactics in the Syrian conflict, who is deputy commander of Russian forces in Ukraine.
A New York Times report, based on a U.S. intelligence briefing, said on Tuesday he had advance knowledge of the&nbsp;mutiny&nbsp;and&nbsp;that Russian authorities were checking if he was complicit.
The Kremlin on Wednesday played down the report, saying that there was&nbsp;and&nbsp;would be a lot of speculation&nbsp;and&nbsp;gossip.
The Russian-language version of the Moscow Times&nbsp;and&nbsp;a military blogger reported Surovikin's&nbsp;arrest,&nbsp;while some other military correspondents who command&nbsp;large&nbsp;followings in Russia said he&nbsp;and&nbsp;other&nbsp;senior&nbsp;officers were being questioned about&nbsp;their possible role in the&nbsp;mutiny.
Reuters could not determine whether Surovikin had been&nbsp;arrested.
Rybar, an influential channel on the Telegram messaging application run by a former Russian defence ministry press officer, said a purge was underway.
He said the authorities were trying to weed&nbsp;out&nbsp;military personnel deemed to&nbsp;have&nbsp;shown "a lack of decisiveness" in putting down the&nbsp;mutiny&nbsp;amid&nbsp;some&nbsp;reports&nbsp;that parts of the armed forces appear to&nbsp;have&nbsp;done&nbsp;little to stop&nbsp;Wagner fighters in the initial stage of the rebellion.
"The armed insurgency by the Wagner private military company has become a pretext for a massive purge in the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces," said Rybar.
Such a move, if confirmed, could alter the way Russia wages its war in Ukraine &mdash; which it calls a "special military operation" &mdash;&nbsp;and&nbsp;cause turmoil in the ranks at a time when Moscow is trying to stymie a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
It could also cement or elevate the positions of other&nbsp;senior&nbsp;military&nbsp;and&nbsp;security figures regarded as loyal.
There was no official comment on what was going on from the defence ministry.
WINNERS&nbsp;AND&nbsp;LOSERS
Some Russian&nbsp;and&nbsp;Western military&nbsp;and&nbsp;political analysts believe Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, a veteran&nbsp;Putin&nbsp;ally who Prigozhin wanted to bring down with Gerasimov because of&nbsp;his&nbsp;alleged incompetence, may actually now be safer in&nbsp;his&nbsp;job.
"I think he (Prigozhin) actually expected something would be done&nbsp;about&nbsp;Shoigu&nbsp;and&nbsp;Gerasimov, that&nbsp;Putin&nbsp;would rule in&nbsp;his&nbsp;favour," Michael Kofman, a Russian military specialist at the Carnegie Endowment think tank, wrote on Twitter.
"Instead,&nbsp;his&nbsp;mutiny&nbsp;may&nbsp;have&nbsp;ensured their continued tenure, despite being universally recognised as incompetent,&nbsp;and&nbsp;widely detested in the Russian Federation's armed forces."
Viktor Zolotov, head of the National Guard who used to be&nbsp;Putin's bodyguard, appears to be another beneficiary after appearing in&nbsp;public&nbsp;to say&nbsp;his&nbsp;men were ready to "stand&nbsp;to the death" to defend Moscow from Wagner.
He has spoken of the possibility of getting heavy weaponry&nbsp;and&nbsp;tanks for&nbsp;his&nbsp;forces in the wake of the&nbsp;mutiny.
Gerasimov was conspicuous by&nbsp;his&nbsp;absence when&nbsp;Putin&nbsp;on Tuesday thanked the army for averting a civil war, unlike Shoigu who has made several&nbsp;public&nbsp;appearances since.
Surovikin, Gerasimov's deputy, was last seen on Saturday when he appeared in a video appealing to Prigozhin to halt&nbsp;his&nbsp;mutiny. He looked exhausted&nbsp;and&nbsp;it was unclear if he was speaking under duress.
There were&nbsp;unconfirmed&nbsp;Russian media&nbsp;and&nbsp;blogger&nbsp;reports&nbsp;on Wednesday evening that Surovikin was being held in Moscow's Lefortovo detention facility after being&nbsp;arrested.
Alexei Venediktov, a well-connected journalist, said - without&nbsp;citing&nbsp;his&nbsp;sources - that Surovikin had not been in touch with&nbsp;his&nbsp;family since Saturday&nbsp;and&nbsp;that&nbsp;his&nbsp;bodyguards had gone&nbsp;silent too.
Prigozhin, who had spent months vilifying Shoigu&nbsp;and&nbsp;Gerasimov for their alleged incompetence in the Ukraine war, had frequently praised Surovikin who is widely respected in the army for&nbsp;his&nbsp;experience in Chechnya&nbsp;and&nbsp;Syria.
Surovikin, who did a stint as overall commander of the Ukraine war before Gerasimov was appointed to take over, is regarded by Western military analysts&nbsp;and&nbsp;by parts of the Ukrainian military as an effective operator.
He had been spoken of by Russian war correspondents as a potential future defence minister.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by&nbsp;Andrew Osborn; Editing by Mike Collett-White&nbsp;and&nbsp;Lisa Shumaker)

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