Russian general shot and wounded in Moscow, in latest attack on top military leaders
By Anna Chernova, Lauren Kent, CNN
(CNN) — A Russian general serving as deputy head of Russian military intelligence was shot and seriously wounded in Moscow on Friday, officials said – the latest in a series of attacks on top military figures.
An unknown attacker fired several shots at Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev in a residential building on Volokolamskoye Highway in Moscow and fled the scene, a Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson said in a statement.
The Russian Investigative Committee said its officers are at the scene and investigators are searching for the shooter. The committee has opened a criminal case into what it called the attempted murder of a high-ranking defense ministry official.
Alekseyev has been transferred to a city hospital, the Investigative Committee statement said. He is in intensive care and in serious condition following the shooting, according to Russian state media.
Alekseyev, 64, is the first deputy head of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate, the GRU, according to a 2025 report by the US Congressional Research Service. The Russian general has been sanctioned by the United States.
He was also sanctioned by the European Union in January 2019 following a nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England, which the British government said was carried out by GRU agents to poison a former Russian spy. The EU sanctions describe Alekseyev as “responsible for the possession, transport and use in Salisbury during the weekend of 4 March 2018 of the toxic nerve agent ‘Novichok’ by officers from the GRU,” along with sanctioned Russian military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.
In 2023, Alekseyev was sent by the Russian military to negotiate with Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private mercenary group, during the Wagner group’s mutiny. At the time, he called Prigozhin’s actions a coup as well as “a stab in the back of the country and the president.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a Friday press briefing that the intelligence services were investigating the attack on Alekseyev and would report any findings to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He added: “We wish the general survival and recovery.”
“It is clear that such military leaders and highly qualified specialists are at risk during a war,” Peskov said when asked about the security of military officials’ residences. “That’s a matter for the intelligence services.”
Several prominent Russians have been killed by explosive devices or shot dead in Moscow in attacks blamed on the Ukrainian security services since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Friday’s shooting in Moscow comes one day after Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators met for trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates, where the Russian delegation was led by their military intelligence chief Kostyukov.
This is a developing story and has been updated.
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