Russian national arrested in Dubai over General Alekseyev’s shooting

A Russian national, Lyubomir Korba, has been arrested in Dubai in connection with Friday’s attempted assassination of Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev.

Alekseyev, deputy head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence, was seriously wounded after he was shot multiple times at an apartment building in northwestern Moscow.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on Sunday confirmed that Korba was detained by the police in the United Arab Emirates and then extradited.

A second man has been arrested in Moscow, while a suspected female accomplice of the gunman has reportedly fled to Ukraine, which the Kremlin blames for the shooting.

Alekseyev, whom Putin bestowed a Hero of Russia award, has played a key role in operations in Ukraine and was involved in Moscow’s intervention in Syria during Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The general was also dispatched to negotiate with Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin when he staged an uprising against the Russian government in June 2023.

Alekseyev has been sanctioned by the U​nited States and ​the EU for alleged involvement in the 2016 U.S. election interference and the 2018 ​death of ​ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal​ in England.

The attack on 64-year-old Alekseyev occurred barely seven weeks after an explosion in Moscow claimed the life of Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvaro.

The death of Sarvaro, then Head of the Operational Training Directorate at the Armed Forces’ General Staff, added to the number of assassinations of Russian officials in recent years.

Russian national arrested in Dubai over General Alekseyev’s shooting