Russian Intel Chief Shot in Moscow     02/06 06:13

   

   MOSCOW (AP) -- A deputy chief of Russia's military intelligence was shot and 
wounded in Moscow on Friday in an attack that follows a series of 
assassinations of senior military officers that Russia has blamed on Ukraine.

   Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev was shot several time by an unidentified 
assailant at an apartment building in Moscow's northwest and hospitalized, 
Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.

   Petrenko didn't say who could be behind the attack on the 64-year-old who 
has served as the first deputy head of Russia's military intelligence since 
2011. He was decorated with the Hero of Russia medal for his role in Moscow's 
military campaign in Syria and in June 2023 was filmed speaking to mercenary 
chief Yevgeny Prigozhin when his Wagner Group seized the military headquarters 
in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don during his botched mutiny.

   The shooting came a day after Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. negotiators 
wrapped up two days of talks in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, aimed at 
ending the nearly four-year conflict in Ukraine. The Russian delegation was led 
by Alekseyev's boss, military intelligence chief Adm. Igor Kostyukov.

   President Vladimir Putin was informed about the attack, said Kremlin 
spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who added that law enforcement agencies need to step 
up protection of senior military officers during the conflict in Ukraine.

   Since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine nearly four years ago, Russian 
authorities have blamed Kyiv for several assassinations of military officers 
and public figures in Russia. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of 
them. It has not yet commented on the shooting of Alekseyev.

   In December, a car bomb killed Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the 
Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff.

   In April, another senior Russian military officer, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav 
Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in the General 
Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car parked near his 
apartment building just outside Moscow.

   A Russian man who previously lived in Ukraine pleaded guilty to carrying out 
the attack and said that he had been paid by Ukraine's security services.

   Days after Moskalik's killing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 
he received a report from the head of Ukraine's foreign intelligence agency on 
the "liquidation" of top Russian military figures, adding that "justice 
inevitably comes" although he didn't mention Moskalik's name.

   In December 2024, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military's 
nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden 
on an electric scooter outside his apartment building. Kirillov's assistant 
also died. Ukraine's security service claimed responsibility for the attack.