Suspected perpetrator of attempted assassination of Russian general arrested, FSB announces
The alleged perpetrator of the attempted assassination of a senior Russian military official in Moscow, blamed on Ukraine, was arrested after fleeing to the United Arab Emirates, the Russian security services (FSB) announced on Sunday.
General Vladimir Alexeiev was shot several times on Friday and hospitalized. The latter, who survived, is the first deputy of the head of the Russian military intelligence service Igor Kostyukov, who is the head of the Russian delegation to the peace talks with Ukraine.
According to the FSB, a Russian citizen born in 1960, considered “the direct perpetrator of the crime”has been “arrested and handed over to Russia” after fleeing to Dubai. One of his accomplices was arrested in Moscow, while a woman, another accomplice, managed to flee to Ukraine, said the FSB, cited by Russian news agencies.
Aged 64, General Alexeïev is sanctioned in the West for his alleged role in cyberattacks attributed to Russia and accused of having organized a nerve agent attack against a Russian defector, Sergei Skripal, in the United Kingdom, in 2018. According to his official biography, he notably distinguished himself during intelligence operations in Syria where Russia intervened militarily in 2015 against the rebels and jihadists and in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov accused kyiv, which has not reacted so far, of seeking to derail ongoing negotiations on an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
date: 2026-02-08 08:48:00
Keep reading