Alleged assailants in shooting of Russian General Alekseev plead guilty, FSB claims
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed on Feb. 9 that suspects in the assassination attempt on Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseev, the first deputy head of Russian military intelligence (GRU), had pleaded guilty, Russian state-run media outlet RIA Novosti reported.
The FSB earlier said Alekseev's attackers were two individuals, Lyubomyr Korba and Viktor Vasin, who allegedly acted on Ukraine's orders. The Ukrainian government has denied any involvement in the attempted attack on the Russian general.
According to the FSB, Korba and Vasin were allegedly recruited by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), which promised $30,000 for the assassination of General Alekseev. The FSB also claimed that Polish intelligence was involved in Korba's recruitment, using his son, Lubosz Korba, who lives in Katowice.
Lyubomyr Korba was allegedly recruited in August 2025 in Ternopil, western Ukraine. He then underwent training at a facility in Kyiv before traveling to Moscow via Tbilisi, Georgia, FSB said.
In Moscow, the suspect allegedly spied on high-ranking military officials and, in December 2025, received an order to kill Alekseev.
His accomplice, Zinaida Serebritskaya, allegedly gave Korba the keys to the entrance of the general's residence, where she also lived. According to the FSB, she has since allegedly moved to Ukraine.
Another co-conspirator, Vasin, rented the apartment where Korba lived and provided him with public transportation tickets. The FSB said Vasin had participated in protests in Moscow and supported the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 2024 by the murdered opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
All three suspects are reportedly facing charges that could result in life imprisonment.
Bulgarian investigative journalist and head of investigations at The Insider, Christo Grozev, suggested on X that one of the suspects, Vasin, works for an FSB-linked company that manufactures surveillance tools.
"At least through August 2025, Viktor Vasin was employed as 'chief expert' at NTC Atlas, launched by FSB and now part of military-industrial behemoth Rostec," Grozev wrote.
According to him, Vasin also graduated from Russia's military command communications academy, which was listed on his CV in 2014.
The attempted assassination of Alekseev is "much more likely" to have been linked to a "domestic issue," given the general's role in the 2023 uprising of the Wagner Group, a mercenary unit, a former official told the Washington Post.
Alekseev was then involved in suppressing the mercenary uprising and was reportedly seen meeting with the group's leader, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, before Prigozhin died in a plane crash widely suspected of being orchestrated by Russia's intelligence services.
Alekseev was shot multiple times in Moscow by an unknown assailant, the Kremlin said on Feb 6. The following day, on Feb. 7, Russian state media reported that Alekseev had regained consciousness after successfully undergoing surgery.
Alekseev — born in 1961 in Soviet Ukraine — is the first deputy head of Russian military intelligence (GRU), serving in the role since 2011.
He was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2016 for organizing "malicious cyber activities" during the U.S. presidential election of that year which saw Donald Trump win his first term in office.
The Kremlin reportedly awarded him the title of Hero of the Russian Federation the following year.
Alekseev has also been accused by the U.K. and EU of orchestrating the chemical weapons attack in Salisbury in 2018 that targeted Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
