Authorities in Dubai have arrested and handed over to Russia a man suspected of shooting and wounding a senior officer in Russia's military intelligence service, according to Moscow's security service. The Federal Security Service (FSB) identified the suspect as Lyubomir Korba, a Russian citizen born in 1960 in the Ternopil region of Soviet Ukraine.
Lt Gen Vladimir Alekseyev, 64, deputy director of the GRU, was shot three times on Friday in the stairwell of his Moscow apartment complex, leaving him in a critical condition. Investigators said Ukrainian intelligence agents had tasked Korba with the attack, which was carried out using a Makarov pistol fitted with a silencer at a location seven miles north of the Kremlin.
The FSB said it had also identified two "accomplices", one of whom was detained in Moscow and another who "left for Ukraine". Television images showed masked FSB officers escorting a blindfolded man from a small jet in Russia in the dark. No party has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, called it a "terrorist attack" and claimed, without evidence, that it was intended to derail peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US. A source with direct knowledge of UAE thinking said authorities there believe the attack was orchestrated by Ukraine. Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, denied any involvement and suggested it was the result of Russian "in-fighting". The Kremlin said Vladimir Putin thanked the UAE's president on Saturday for assistance in the detention of a suspect.
Alekseyev, who has been under US and UK sanctions for alleged election interference and involvement in the 2018 Novichok attack in Salisbury, is expected to recover, according to a source familiar with his health. The shooting came a day after Russian and Ukrainian delegations, including Alekseyev's superior Igor Kostyukov, met in Abu Dhabi for peace talks. Ukraine has targeted at least three Russian generals in the Moscow region over the past year.
