BREAKING: Russian General Vladimir Alekseev shot multiple times in Moscow, Russian media reports
Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseev has been shot multiple times in Moscow by an unknown assailant, Russian media citing investigators said on Feb 6.
He has been rushed to hospital and the gunman fled the scene, according to reports.
"The killer was waiting for the Lieutenant General of the Russian Defense Ministry today near a residential building on Volokolamskoye Highway," the Russian media channel SHOT reports.
The Russian Investigative Committee said it had opened an investigation into the shooting.
Alekseev 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.
He was sanctioned by Canada in August 2022 for being complicit in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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.
They survived, but a British civilian who later found the poison was killed.
Alekseev was also instrumental in quelling the short-lived Wagner rebellion in 2023, being one of those sent to negotiate with Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Ukraine has not been officially linked to the shooting and is yet to comment, though Kyiv has previously targeted Russian officials involved in Moscow's full-scale invasion.
Most recently, Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff's operational training department, was killed in a car bombing in Moscow on Dec. 22.
An explosive device attached to the underside of the lieutenant general's car detonated in the morning on Yaseneva Street in Moscow. Sarvarov was taken to the hospital but later died from his injuries.
