A senior Russian military official has been rushed to hospital after being shot in Moscow on Friday, state media reported.
Lt Gen Vladimir Alekseyev was shot several times outside his apartment by an unknown gunman in the north-west of the city and is in critical condition, according to early reports.
Alekseyev is a deputy director of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU. He has been widely described as a key figure overseeing the country’s private military companies and was among the senior officials dispatched to negotiate with Yevgeny Prigozhin during the Wagner group’s brief mutiny in the summer of 2023.
He is also under US sanctions for his alleged involvement in efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.
No party has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion in Moscow is likely to fall on Kyiv. Ukrainian intelligence agencies have targeted dozens of Russian military officers and Russian-installed officials since the start of the war, accusing them of involvement in war crimes.
Little is publicly known about the clandestine networks believed to be behind assassinations and attacks on military infrastructure inside Russia and in Russian-controlled territories.
More details soon …
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