MOSCOW: A Russian man suspected of shooting and wounding senior military intelligence officer Vladimir Alekseyev in Moscow has been arrested in Dubai, the Russian FSB security service said on Sunday.
The man, in his 60s, was “arrested and handed over to Russia” after fleeing to the United Arab Emirates. A suspected accomplice was apprehended in Moscow, while another remains at large in Ukraine, Russian media reported, citing the FSB.
Several high-ranking military officials have been assassinated in Russia and in Moscow-controlled Ukrainian territory since Russia launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, according to AFP.
Alekseyev, deputy head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, was shot in a Moscow apartment on Friday and admitted to hospital.
He is under Western sanctions for his alleged role in cyberattacks and in organizing a nerve agent attack on Russian defector Sergei Skripal in Britain in 2018.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of orchestrating the shooting. Kyiv, which has claimed responsibility for the killing of several high-ranking Russian military officials since the start of the war, has not commented on this case.
