A Russian intelligence general was shot in Moscow.

MoscowAnother assassination attempt has been made against a Russian army general in Moscow. Vladimir Alekseyev, deputy head of Russian military intelligence (GRU) and right-hand man of the chief Russian negotiator in the Abu Dhabi trilateral peace talks, which concluded on Thursday, was shot multiple times. The Kremlin believes this is an attempt by Ukraine to derail the negotiations with the United States. Since the start of the invasion, 19 Russian Armed Forces generals have been killed. This marks the fourth attack against high-ranking military officers in Moscow in just over a year. The victim is hospitalized in serious condition.

The attack occurred early Friday morning in a residential building in Volokolamsk, northwest of the capital. The assailant, disguised as a food delivery driver, surprised the general in the lobby of his building as he was walking toward his official vehicle and shot him at least three times. Despite being wounded, the victim struggled with the attacker and tried to take his gun before the assailant finally fled. He remains at large, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has only commented that intelligence services are investigating the crime.

Although the perpetrators of the attack are unknown, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has already pointed the finger directly at Ukraine. "This terrorist attack confirms, once again, the determination of the Zelensky regime to disrupt the negotiation process," he said. In his view, Kyiv is prepared to do "anything" to convince the United States not to sign "a fair agreement" with Russia.

Negotiator with Prigokhin

Alekseyev, 65, born in Ukraine, has been the number two in the Russian military intelligence service since 2011. At the start of the invasion, he played a key role and even participated in talks with Kyiv during the siege of Mariupol. From the Azov Battalion, Commander Denis Prokopenko has accused him of lying during the negotiations that ended with the Ukrainian surrender of the Azovstal factory, the city's last stronghold. According to Prokopenko, Alekseyev pledged to respect the Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of prisoners, but they were tortured in Russia. Ukrainian military intelligence also holds him responsible for preparing targets for attacks against civilian infrastructure and for organizing the referendum on self-determination in the Kherson region.

The general was in charge of the mercenary groups that fought alongside the Russian army. His figure rose to prominence during the Wagner Group mutiny in June 2023, when he was one of the men who convinced Yevgeny Prigokhin to end the rebellion and appeared in a video condemning his actions. However, he lost some of the Kremlin's trust due to his ambivalent stance during the coup. For months, rumors of an imminent purge circulated, the same rumors that now fuel theories of a possible settling of scores within the GRU. Nevertheless, he has remained a key figure in the Russian war effort ever since. He oversaw the remnants of the defunct Wagner Group, the recruitment of prisoners, and the Hispaniola Brigade, formed by far-right Russian football hooligans. Between 2019 and 2020, the European Union and the United Kingdom added Alekseyev to their sanctions list for the use of chemical weapons. He is considered ultimately responsible for the attempted poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in 2018 in Great Britain with the nerve agent Novichok. Previously, in 2016, the United States had also placed him under sanctions in connection with cyberattacks aimed at interfering in that year's presidential elections.

Negligence by the intelligence services

This latest assassination attempt on a Russian general far from the front lines once again highlights the vulnerabilities of high-ranking officers in the rear. The victim has lived for years in a building without enhanced security, which visitors can access without difficulty, as has been demonstrated. Military bloggers lament that, without special protocols for these army positions, the generals are endangering themselves and their neighbors. According to the Kremlin, it is "not within their purview" to discuss how to guarantee their safety.

For Andrei Soldatov, a journalist specializing in Russian security services, this is a case of "unbelievable negligence" on the part of military counterintelligence, "by far the largest department of the FSB," the former KGB. "One would have expected them to increase protection for high-ranking military officials; instead, they spend resources spying on military personnel, all in the name of loyalty," he wrote to X.