Overview
- Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, 64, the first deputy head of Russia’s GRU, was shot multiple times in his apartment building on Volokolamskoye Highway and is hospitalized in serious condition.
- The Investigative Committee opened a case for attempted murder and illegal firearms possession, with investigators reviewing CCTV footage and questioning witnesses after the gunman fled.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was briefed, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov labeled the shooting a terrorist act by Ukraine intended to sabotage negotiations, a claim not independently verified and not addressed by Kyiv.
- Alekseyev is a long-serving GRU figure sanctioned by the United States and European Union over alleged cyber operations and the 2018 Salisbury poisoning, and he helped negotiate with Wagner during the 2023 mutiny.
- The shooting fits a pattern of attacks on senior Russian officers, including recent car-bomb killings of generals in and around Moscow, while a report of a suspect detained in Dubai remains unconfirmed.