A senior Russian military officer, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, was shot dead outside his residence in Moscow on Friday.
An investigator works outside a residential building where there was an assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev in Moscow. (Reuters)Alekseyev is the deputy head of Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU. He was rushed to hospital after the shooting, Reuters reported.
The incident is the latest in a series of attacks on military officials in Russia. Unknown assailants fled the scene after Alekseyev was shot several times in his residential building in northwest Moscow, the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office reported.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which investigates major criminal cases, said an unidentified man fired several shots at Alekseev, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, investigation and search operations are being conducted to identify the person or persons involved in the incident, said the spokesman of the committee.
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Who was Vladimir Alexiev?Alekseyev was responsible for relations between the Ministry of Defense led by Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner’s mercenary group, which fought some of the deadliest battles in the early stages of the war in Ukraine.
He led intelligence operations to support the current ousted leader Bashar al-Assad during Russia’s intervention in Syria.
Frequent attacks on senior Russian officialsRussian officials have been killed since the start of the war in Ukraine, with Moscow blaming the attack on Kiev. In some cases, Ukrainian military intelligence has claimed responsibility.
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The attacks have raised questions about the safety of such high-ranking officials, with some targets killed outside their homes.
Earlier on December 22, the head of the Army Training Directorate of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, was killed by a bomb planted under his car, reports said.
Last month, a Russian court sentenced an Uzbek man to life in prison for the 2024 murder of the head of the Russian army’s radiology and biological defense forces. The officer, Igor Kirillov, was killed when a scooter exploded as he was leaving his apartment.
(with input from agencies)
