The apparent assassination attempt on Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, the powerful deputy chief of Russias military intelligence service, has raised more questions than answers about who ordered the hit and why.
According to RedState, Alexeyev, the number two official in the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federationbetter known as the GRUwas ambushed in a stairwell outside his 24th-floor apartment in Moscow. A lone assailant reportedly fired multiple rounds into the senior officer before fleeing the scene, leaving Alexeyev hospitalized in serious condition.
As the original report dryly observed, between multiple bullet wounds and Russian medical care, this fellow is cooked.
Alexeyev is no obscure bureaucrat; he has long been a central figure in some of the GRUs most notorious operations. He was placed under U.S. sanctions for his role in Russian cyber interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a campaign that many conservatives view as having been used by Democrats and the media to fuel years of politicized investigations and undermine a duly elected president. The European Union later sanctioned him over the 2018 poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, an attack that further cemented the GRUs reputation for brazen operations on Western soil.
Since the outset of the Russia-Ukraine war, Alexeyev has been closely linked to the targeting of Ukrainian civilians, non-military infrastructure, and even first responders. One widely circulated report stated: BREAKING: The deputy head of Russias military intelligence agency GRU has been shot several times in Moscow Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, responsible for coordinating missile & air strikes against Ukrainian civilian targets, is now fighting for his life in hospital ????. For many in the West, particularly those who still believe in moral accountability in warfare, his name has become synonymous with the Kremlins campaign of terror against non-combatants.
In that context, it is unsurprising that initial speculation placed Alexeyev alongside the growing list of Russian military and political figures who have met violent or mysterious ends since the war began. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov quickly pointed the finger at Kyiv, effectively crediting Ukraine with the attempted killing. For a regime eager to portray itself as besieged by foreign enemies, blaming Ukrainian operatives fits neatly into the Kremlins narrative.
There is little doubt that Ukraine has actively targeted individuals involved in prosecuting or justifying Moscows war, including propagandists and alleged war criminals. Ukrainian intelligence has been linked to a series of high-profile assassinations and sabotage operations, many of them carried out with ruthless efficiency. However, the circumstances of this attack suggest that the shooting of Alexeyev deserves a more skeptical and detailed examination than the Kremlins reflexive accusations allow.
Basic questions about the operation strain credulity if one assumes an external hit team. How does the number two guy in the GRU not have a security detail? And, as the original account asked with some sarcasm, what in the hell is he doing in a stairwell on the 24th floor? Was he a Crossky Fitsky fanatic? For a man of his rank and sensitivity, wandering alone in a stairwell in a heavily surveilled capital city seems, at best, reckless.
The logistics of the attack are equally puzzling. How does a lone gunman penetrate the security of a senior intelligence officers residential building, intercept Alexeyev, possibly in a stairwell, though I'm open to him having been forced into the stairwell at gunpoint, shoot him, and then make good his escape? Ukraines operations in Moscow have typically favored methods that minimize exposure and maximize deniability. As the original report noted, So far, Ukraine's weapon of choice for striking targets in Moscow has been the car bomb. A botched shooting doesn't seem to fit the pattern.
Alexeyevs recent history inside the Russian system further complicates the picture. He was briefly arrested and suspended from duty after Yevgeny Prigozhins failed mutiny in June 2023, a period when Chaos Reigns as 28 Top Russian Commanders Are Sacked or Disappeared After Prigozhin's Revolt but He Lives Large in St. Petersburg. He is also the second senior general to die or be targeted in less than a year, following the killing of Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy chief of the operational planning directorate of the Russian General Staff, whose end was very much out of the Ukrainian GUR's playbook.
Taken together, these factors point toward a darker and more familiar explanation: internal score-settling within a corrupt and paranoid regime. As the original analysis concluded, At this point, I'd say that there is a greater than 50-50 chance that Alexeyev was taken out because of internal Russian politics than killed by Ukrainian agents. That said, good riddance.
For those who still believe in personal responsibility and the moral law, the apparent downfall of a man tied to election interference, chemical attacks, and strikes on civilians is less a tragedy than a grim reminder that in authoritarian systems, the architects of violence often fall victim to the very culture of brutality they helped create.
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