Russian general from the GRU, the target of an “assassination” in Moscow. He was rushed to the hospital after being shot
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeiev. Photo source: Russian Ministry of Defense
A senior Russian military official, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeiev, was rushed to hospital after being shot in Moscow on Friday, according to investigators, quoted by state media, Reuters writes.
Vladimir Alekseev was the target of an assassination in northwest Moscow, and he was hospitalized, the official spokesperson of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Svetlana Petrenko, announced, according to TASS.
According to the cited source, on Friday in a residential building on the Volokolamsk highway in Moscow, an unidentified person shot a man several times and fled the scene. “The victim was hospitalized in one of the city's hospitals,” Petrenko noted.
According to the Russian Telegram channel Mash, which has sources in the security services, the attack took place at 7 local time. He was “shot in the back” in the elevator lobby, according to the quoted source.
Alexeiev is the deputy head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense (GRU), according to Reuters.
When the head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged a short-lived revolt in June 2023, Alexeiev was one of the senior officials sent to negotiate with him.
During Prigozhin's uprising, Alexeiev and Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Evkurov were captured by Wagner mercenaries in Rostov-on-Don, according to the independent Russian publication The Moscow Times.
Then a video emerged in which Prigozhin explains to generals in the Russian Ministry of Defense that he wants to “catch” Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov and Prime Minister Sergei Shoigu, or he will go to Moscow.
“Take them,” smiled Alexeiev, who the day before had recorded a message addressed to the Wagner fighters, accusing them of a coup d'état and urging them to “change their minds.”
Alexeiev has been the first deputy head of the GRU since 2011. In 2017, he was awarded the title of Hero of Russia. During Russia's military operation in Syria, he commanded the actions of military spies.
Several senior Russian military officers have been assassinated since the start of the war in Ukraine, with Moscow blaming Kiev for the attacks.
