On Friday, a high-ranking Russian military intelligence officer was shot and injured in Moscow, a case that the Russian authorities are investigating against the backdrop of increased security concerns in the context of the current war in Ukraine. The shooting is one in a sequence of recent assaults on top Russian military officials that Moscow has already connected with Ukraine.
The first deputy chief of the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU), Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, suffered injuries after an unknown attacker fire at an apartment building in northwestern Moscow, Russia said that theevent was investigated by the Investigative Committee. The police officer aged 64 was admitted to hospital following several gun shoot wounds. His condition was not announced by the officials at once.
The attack was confirmed by the spokesperson of the Investigative Committee Svetlana Petrenko who did not disclose any information about the perpetrator and possible motives. Putin, the Russian President, was informed of the incident, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told him that the law enforcement agencies must reinforce the security of high-ranking military personnel in the course of the conflict.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia knew the shooting as a supposed terrorism action and implied that Ukraine might have done it, saying that the shooting was meant to sabotage on-going peace talks. He observed that the law enforcement agencies would make a complete investigation. The Ukrainian officials did not comment on the incident.
The Kommersant newspaper of Russia says that the attacker presented himself as a delivery man and approached Alekseyev at the staircase of his apartment house. The report indicated that Alekseyev was shot twice, tried to take the gun of the assailant and was shot again on his chest and the man fled. These facts have not been officially verified by investigators.
Alekseyev currently, since 2011, is the first deputy head of the GRU, and has been a key figure in Russian military activity in the international arena. In June 2023, he was on Russian state television in negotiations with the leader of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin when Wagner troops temporarily occupied military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don in a mutiny that lasted a few hours.
Being born in Ukraine under the Soviet rule, Alekseyev made his way to the ranks of military intelligence within the Russian forces and managed to be in charge of operations in Ukraine, Syria, and others. Western sanctions have been issued against him, including the United States, over his purported role in the interference of the 2016 presidential election in the United States. In the United Kingdom and the European Union, he has also been sanctioned due to the alleged reason behind the 2018 poisoning of a former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the United Kingdom.
This shooting followed a few hours after the Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. officials had come out of two days of negotiations in Abu Dhabi with the aim of identifying avenues to put the Ukrainian-Russian war to an end that had lasted almost four years. GRU chief, Igor Kostyukov headed the delegation of Russia at those talks.
Since the full-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine, the Russian officials have claimed that Kyiv is planning multiple assassinations of both military personnel and civilians within Russia. Ukraine has admitted it has been involved in some of its previous attacks but it has not made any comment regarding the shooting of Alekseyev.
Over the last few months, several high ranking Russian officials have been assassinated. Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was also killed in a car bomb in Moscow in December. Previously, Lieutenant general Yaroslav Moskalik was assassinated using an explosive gadget attached in his car near Moscow. In yet another instance, a Russian man who had connection to Ukraine admitted to committing an attack, claiming he was paid by the Ukrainian security organizations.
The case surrounding the shooting of Alekseyev is open.