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 seriously 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 military intelligence service GRU, was shot three times on Friday with a Makarov pistol fitted with a silencer in an apartment block on the Volokolamsk highway in northern Moscow, according to investigators.
Alexeyev, aged 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 speak.
The Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said in a statement that a Russian national 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 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 has identified two accomplices, also Russian citizens. One, Viktor Vasin, was detained in Moscow, while another, Zinaida Serebritskaya, fled to Ukraine, Russian investigators said.
Reuters could not immediately verify 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 has not released details on how Korba was detained.
SHADOW WAR
The shooting of one such senior Russian intelligence officer just 12 km (7 miles) north of the Kremlin underscored the vulnerability of top Russian generals involved in the execution of the war in Ukraine.
Some in Russia have questioned how Alexeyev could be surveilled in such a place and why he was not better guarded.
The head of the GRU, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, was 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 Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, the military intelligence agencies of Russia and Ukraine fought a “hybrid” war involving cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns, attacks on strategic infrastructure, and assassinations.
Since December 2024, three other officers 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 the assassination of several senior Russian officials, some of whom appeared on a public list of enemies of Ukraine.
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 to that particular general – maybe it was their Russian infighting,” he said.
‘SERIOUS DATA’
The GRU, like the FSB, is a vast and powerful Russian intelligence agency that includes overseas sleeper agents, special forces units and advanced cyber capabilities.
Jailed Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who has repeatedly rebuked Russian generals for what he says is the shambolic prosecution of the war, praised Alexeyev’s energy and courage but said the attack was a significant blow.
“This is a serious blow to our special services,” said Girkin, himself a former FSB officer, 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 heard how Prigozhin said he was about to take then Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov.
“Then take them,” said Alexeyev with a laugh.
The mutiny collapsed and Prigozhin died in a plane crash two months later.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Aidan Lewis)