Sawt Falasteen - Russia accuses Kyiv of gun attack on army general in Moscow

There was no comment from Kyiv, which has claimed responsibility for several of the high-ranking military officials that have been killed on Russian soil since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.

Vladimir Alekseyev is the deputy head of Moscow's GRU military intelligence. He is under Western sanctions for his alleged role in cyberattacks and charges that he organised a nerve agent attack on a Russian defector in Britain.

Russian investigators said he was shot by an "unidentified individual" who fled the scene, and was subsequently admitted to hospital.

In televised comments, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the "terrorist act", saying Kyiv wanted to "disrupt the negotiation process" aimed at ending the four-year war.

Alekseyev is the top deputy of Moscow's main negotiator at trilateral talks with Ukraine and the United States, the latest round of which concluded Thursday in Abu Dhabi.

The Kremlin acknowledged its military leaders were under threat at home while its troops were fighting in Ukraine.

"It is clear that such military leaders and high-level specialists are at risk during wartime," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"But it is not up to the Kremlin to decide how to ensure their safety. That is a matter for the special services."

He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin was being kept aware of the incident and the Kremlin hoped the general would recover.

Putin -- who did not comment on the shooting despite making public appearances on Friday -- has reprimanded his powerful FSB security services for missing assassination plots in the past.

- 'Did not expect it' -

On Friday, AFP reporters saw a forensic vehicle parked outside an apartment block in a northwestern Moscow suburb.

Investigators had cordoned off access to the red-brick residential complex.

Residents told AFP they were alarmed.

Russia's almost four-year military campaign has killed thousands and forced millions to flee their homes in Ukraine but can appear distant in Moscow.

"We are all in shock," said sales manager Yelena Komissarova. "And in our block too."

"How could this happen?" doctor Zalina Khutayeva, 33, said. "We did not expect anything like this."

Bar very few exceptions, top military figures behind Moscow's Ukraine campaign are not public figures in Russia, which presents an exclusively positive image of its offensive on highly controlled state media.

Denis Tsyrulin, a 21-year-old who lives in the complex, said he did not know who Alekseyev was until the shooting.

"The fact that he lived in our complex surprised me even more," he told AFP.

- Skripal connection -

A career military officer born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union, Alekseyev has been the first deputy chief of the GRU since 2011.

He has been under Western sanctions over alleged cyberattacks and for what the West said was his role in organising the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.

That attempted assassination left one member of the British public dead and severely strained ties between London and Moscow.

Alekseyev also led intelligence operations during the Russian intervention in Syria on behalf of now-ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.

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

At the time, Alekseyev was filmed sitting with Prigozhin in a Russian military compound taken over by Wagner, trying to convince the mercenary chief to call off his troops.

Prigozhin died months after the aborted rebellion when his plane exploded mid-air.

Russia's Investigative Committee said on Friday that Alekseyev had been hit by "several shots".

There was no update on his condition other than that he had been hospitalised.

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

E.Aziz--SF-PST