Russian GRU general shot in Moscow assassination attempt

Friday 06 February 2026 - 11:20

By: Dakir Madiha

Russian GRU general shot in Moscow assassination attempt

Deputy chief of Russia's military intelligence service, GRU, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseïev sustained multiple gunshot wounds outside a Moscow residential building Friday, the Russian Investigative Committee reported. Emergency services rushed the general to hospital while the shooter fled the scene.

State media placed the attack on Volokolamskoe Highway in northwest Moscow. Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko confirmed Alekseïev took several hits from an unidentified assailant but offered no updates on his condition or suspects.

The assassination attempt came one day after Russian, Ukrainian, and American negotiators wrapped two days of US-mediated peace talks in Abu Dhabi. Russian Admiral Igor Kostyukov, GRU chief and Alekseïev's direct superior, led Moscow's delegation. The talks secured a 314-prisoner exchange, the first in five months, but yielded no major breakthrough toward ending the near four-year conflict.

Alekseïev has served as first deputy GRU director since 2011, holding a top security role. He joined high-level talks with Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin during the aborted June 2023 mutiny.

Western nations sanctioned the general for alleged covert operations. The US Treasury targeted him in 2016 over "malicious cyber activities" during the American presidential election. The EU sanctioned him in 2019 for orchestrating the 2018 Novichok nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England. The Kremlin awarded him Hero of the Russian Federation in 2017.

This shooting follows targeted killings of senior Russian military figures that Moscow blames on Ukrainian intelligence. In December 2024, Major General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia's nuclear, biological, and chemical protection troops, died from a scooter bomb outside his Moscow apartment, later claimed by Ukraine's Security Service. Major General Yaroslav Moskalik perished in a car bomb near Moscow in April 2025, and Major General Fanil Sarvarov died in a similar Moscow attack in December 2025. The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe into the "attempted murder."