A Western-sanctioned Russian military intelligence chief has been rushed to hospital after being repeatedly shot.
A Western-sanctioned Russian military intelligence chief has been rushed to hospital in critical condition after being repeatedly shot at a residential building in Moscow, the Kremlin says.
64-year-old Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev was hit with “several shots” on the 24th floor of a residential block in north-west Moscow on Friday morning. Russian state media says he was rushed to hospital in critical condition and the national Investigative Committee has launched a case into attempted murder and illegal trafficking of firearms.
General Alekseyev is just the latest in a steady stream of senior Russian officers attacked at their homes or out in public since Moscow launched its renewed invasion of Ukraine in 2022. While Kyiv’s intelligence services are generally blamed or take the credit for these decapitation strikes, Ukraine has yet to officially comment on this attempted assassination at the time of publication.
Ukrainian state media notes General Alekseyev was the deputy chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (Moscow’s foreign military intelligence agency, known as the GRU) and in addition to his role in the invasion of Ukraine was also a known player in Russia’s response to the Wagner Group mutiny in 2023. Wagner Group mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin turned their tanks away from the Ukrainian frontline and headed for Moscow in summer 2023, a rebellion against what was said to have been the Kremlin’s mishandling of the Ukraine War.
The mutiny ultimately failed and Prigozhin died in mysterious circumstances months later. It is stated Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev was a key figure in halting the rebellion, having appealed directly to revolting Wagner Group troops to stop, and personally negotiated with Prigozhin over the affair. Indeed, a 2023 paper by the Royal United Services Institute of London suggests Alekseyev was likely Prigozhin’s handler within the Russian state.
But General Alekseyev is best known for his alleged involvement in the notorious chemical weapon attack against the United Kingdom known as the 2018 Salisbury Poisoning. The potent nerve agent Novichok was smuggled into Britain and used in an attempted assassination of Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal who had been a double agent for British intelligence and who settled in England after being exchanged in a spy swap.
The attempted assassination was botched, however, and the target survive.
