An assassination attempt was made in Moscow on First Deputy Chief of the GRU, General Vladimir Alekseyev. The general was attacked in the entryway of the building on Volokolamskoye Highway where he lives. According to a source, an unknown assailant ambushed the military commander at 7:10 a.m. and fired three shots. The bullets struck the general in the torso, and he was hospitalized in serious condition. The entire leadership of Moscow's security services responded to the scene.
A source for the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info reported that the assassin entered the entryway and ambushed First Deputy Chief of the GRU, Vladimir Alekseyev, on the 24th floor, where he lives with his family. According to neighbors, many were unaware that their neighbor was a military commander—in the building's community chat, they initially described him as "an ordinary family with a child."
Residents of the residential complex complained that the fire alarm had been working the previous day and that the elevators were malfunctioning. Residents also claimed that the fire escape was a "passable yard" where homeless people slept. Apparently, the killer used this passageway, as the elevators are equipped with security cameras.
Furthermore, the cameras on the floors aren't working (in the chat, neighbors wrote that the management company promised to fix them after the New Year, but never did), and the video quality on the entryway and street cameras is very poor. Local resident Anastasia said she heard security officers at the entrance and at the neighboring Magnit store discussing the lack of proper cameras and video recordings.
According to Yulia, a realtor and the general's neighbor on the landing, she heard gunshots and cries of "Help!" early in the morning. She left her apartment and saw Alekseyev lying bleeding on the floor, while her neighbor (presumably the general's wife) shouted, "Call an ambulance, he's got a gunshot wound!"
An eyewitness claims the general was conscious when she left her apartment, but had lost a lot of blood. "The whole floor is covered in blood," Yulia wrote in a chat. She asked Vladimir Alekseyev's wife if she needed help, but she was in shock and refused.
According to another neighbor, the ambulance didn't leave the building for approximately 15 minutes after the wounded man was loaded into the vehicle. Doctors performed emergency resuscitation measures on the spot. According to our sources, Alekseyev is in serious condition in the intensive care unit of a city hospital.
Despite the fact that Vladimir Alekseyev, the first deputy head of the GRU, who was assassinated this morning, effectively supported the Wagner PMC mutiny, his rights and powers were not restricted in any way, let alone his resignation, which was initially impossible for a number of reasons. Previously, sources from the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info reported that, while serving as the first deputy head of the GRU for over 10 years (even before Shoigu joined the Ministry of Defense), Alekseyev accumulated all the levers of control over the agency, not to mention compromising information on the country's leadership, which issued specific orders through the GRU, including those for physical assassination. During the post-Prigozhin mutiny debriefing, the Kremlin concluded that the abrupt removal of "Stepanych" (the common term for Alekseev) could provoke an uncontrollable escalation, potentially further destabilizing the tense atmosphere within the military and the GRU's overseas apparatus. Based on this, a decision was made to gradually push Alekseev out of his spheres of influence and reduce his authority in the eyes of his protégés and other subordinates.
The Kremlin calculated that the opportunity to remove Alekseev arose in 2025. At that time, they attempted to remove him peacefully and offered him the position of Chief of the General Staff Academy (a colonel general), but he declined, considering it effectively a retirement. Furthermore, the general has many high-ranking supporters, including GRU Chief Igor Kostyukov.
At the time of the assassination attempt, Alekseev continued to serve as the head of the GRU operational group in the joint group of troops of the Central Military District (call sign "Omega"), directly supervising the agency's forces and resources. In addition to his protégé, Major General Denis Barilo, who leads the volunteer corps, Alekseev also maintains a close relationship with Ilya Barilo (the brother of the aforementioned Denis), who handles financial matters related to the volunteer corps. He is one of Alekseev's "wallets."
