Top Russian general shot several times in Moscow building, hospitalised

A Russian general was shot in an apartment building in Moscow on Friday morning and rushed to hospital, officials said, in the latest apparent assassination attempt of a top Russian military figure.

Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, 64 was shot several time by an unidentified assailant at an apartment building in Moscow's northwest and hospitalised, Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said "an unidentified individual fired several shots" at Vladimir Alekseyev, a general who has a senior role in Russia's general staff, before fleeing the scene. "The victim has been hospitalised," the agency added in a statement.

It did not say anything about the suspected perpetrator.

Police officers walk past a high-rise residential building, the scene of an assassination attempt on General Vladimir Alekseyev, in Moscow. AFP

President Vladimir Putin was informed about the attack, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who added that law enforcement agencies need to step up protection of senior military officers during the conflict in Ukraine.

Several high-ranking military officials have been killed since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.

Kyiv has claimed responsibility for some of the hits.

A career military officer, Alekseyev is the first deputy chief of the Russian general staff, according to his online biography.

He led intelligence operations during the Russian intervention in Syria to support the now-ousted leader Bashar Al Assad.

And he was also despatched to negotiate with Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin during his attempted mutiny against Russian military top brass in 2023.

"Investigative actions and operational search measures are being carried out to identify the person or persons involved in committing the aforementioned crime," Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.

Last month a Russian court sentenced an Uzbek man to life in prison for the 2024 killing of the head of the Russian army's radiological, chemical and biological defence forces.

The general, Igor Kirillov, was killed when a booby-trapped scooter exploded as he left an apartment block in Moscow, in an attack Kyiv said it had orchestrated.

Agence France-Presse