By Guy Faulconbridge and Gleb Stolyarov
MOSCOW, Feb 8 (Reuters) – A Ukrainian-born Russian citizen has been extradited to Moscow from Dubai on suspicion of gravely injuring one of Russia’s most senior military intelligence officers, Russian security officials and investigators said on Sunday.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of Russia’s vast GRU military intelligence service, was shot three times on Friday with a Makarov pistol equipped with a silencer in an apartment block on the Volokolamsk highway in northern Moscow, according to investigators.
Alexeyev, 64, was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery. His wife told a Russian war blogger on Sunday that Alexeyev had regained consciousness and was able to talk.
The Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said in a statement that a Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was detained in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the shooting.
Russian investigators said Korba, born in the Ternopil region of Soviet Ukraine in 1960, was tasked by Ukrainian intelligence to carry out the shooting. Russia said Ukraine was behind the shooting but Kyiv has denied involvement.
Russian media showed masked FSB officers escorting a blindfolded man from a small jet in Russia in the dark.
The FSB said it had identified two accomplices, also Russian citizens. One, Viktor Vasin, was detained in Moscow, while another, Zinaida Serebritskaya, escaped to Ukraine, Russian investigators said.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the details of the suspects. President Vladimir Putin thanked Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the leader of the United Arab Emirates, for his help in detaining the suspect, Russia’s foreign ministry said.
The UAE did not release details about how Korba was detained.
SHADOW WAR
The shooting of such a senior Russian intelligence official just 12 km (7 miles) north of the Kremlin has underscored the vulnerability of top Russian generals involved in executing the war in Ukraine.
Some in Russia have questioned how Alexeyev could be tracked in such a location and why he was not guarded better.
The head of the GRU, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, has been leading Russia’s delegation in negotiations with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on security-related aspects of a potential peace deal.
Behind the front lines of the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, Russia and Ukraine’s military intelligence agencies have fought a shadow “hybrid” war involving cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns, strikes at strategic infrastructure, and killings.
Since December 2024, three other officials of the same rank as Alexeyev have been killed in or near Moscow.
Since the start of the war in 2022, Ukrainian military intelligence has claimed responsibility for assassinating several senior Russian officers, some of whom have appeared on a public list of Ukraine’s enemies.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told Reuters on Friday that Ukraine had nothing to do with Alexeyev’s shooting.
“We don’t know what happened with that particular general – maybe it was their own internal Russian in-fighting,” he said.
‘SERIOUS BLOW’
The GRU, like the FSB, is a vast and powerful Russian intelligence agency that includes sleeper agents abroad, special forces units and advanced cyber capabilities.
Jailed Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who has repeatedly scolded Russian generals for what he says the shambolic prosecution of the war, praised Alexeyev’s energy and courage but said the attack was a significant setback.
“This is a serious blow to our special services,” Girkin, himself a former FSB officer, said on Telegram.
Alexeyev came to national prominence in June 2023 when he was shown trying to calm down Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, during a failed mutiny.
In a video, Alexeyev listened as Prigozhin said he had come to take then-Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov.
“Take them then,” Alexeyev said with a chuckle.
The mutiny fizzled and Prigozhin died in a plane crash two months later.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Aidan Lewis)
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