A man suspected of shooting and wounding senior Russian military intelligence officer Vladimir Alexeyev in Moscow has been arrested in Dubai, Russia's FSB security service said Sunday.
The man in his 60s was "arrested and handed over to Russia" after fleeing to the United Arab Emirates, the FSB said. A suspected accomplice was arrested in Moscow, while another escaped to Ukraine.
Alexeyev, a lieutenant general who serves as first deputy head of Russia's GRU military intelligence service, was hospitalized after being shot several times at an apartment in Moscow on Friday morning.
The apparent assassination attempt is just the latest in a string of attacks inside Russia targeting senior military officials. Since December 2024, three generals have been killed in or near Moscow, with the most recent killing having taken place late last year.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky orchestrated the attack on Alexeyev in an effort to derail ongoing talks to end the war.
Ukraine has not responded to the allegation.
Alexeyev, who was born in Soviet Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region, began his career in the Spetsnaz special forces. He was placed in charge of intelligence operations in Ukraine after President Vladimir Putin sidelined the FSB security service in the early months of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The United States sanctioned the general for alleged cyber operations targeting the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The European Union sanctioned him for the 2018 poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Scribal and his daughter Yulia in the United Kingdom.
AFP contributed reporting.
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