Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, a top GRU commander linked to the Skripal attack, is fighting for his life after being gunned down in the Russian capital.

The shadow war has arrived on the doorsteps of Moscow’s elite. Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, the deputy chief of Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) and a man sanctioned by the West for orchestrating the 2018 Salisbury nerve agent attack, has been shot multiple times in a brazen assassination attempt. The attack, which took place in the stairwell of his apartment building on the northwestern outskirts of Moscow, has left the general in critical condition and the Kremlin in a state of high alert.

The War Comes Home

Alekseyev is not just a soldier; he is a symbol of Russia’s "gray zone" warfare. As a key figure in the GRU, he has been instrumental in overseeing special operations in Ukraine and allegedly directing the unit responsible for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the UK. His targeting signals a dramatic escalation in the covert conflict that has shadowed the conventional war in Ukraine.

Eyewitnesses report that an unidentified assailant fired several shots at close range before fleeing the scene, a hallmark of a professional hit. The ease with which the attacker penetrated the security of a high-ranking intelligence officer raises uncomfortable questions for the FSB and Putin’s security apparatus.

• The Target: Alekseyev oversaw the 14th Directorate of the GRU, managing special forces and private military contractors.
• The Precedent: This shooting follows a string of mysterious deaths and attacks on Russian military officials and industry leaders since the invasion began.
• The Silence: While Russian state media has acknowledged the "incident," the Kremlin has remained tight-lipped, likely assessing whether this was an internal purge or an external operation.

A Message in Bullets

For Vladimir Putin, this is more than an attempted murder; it is a breach of the unspoken contract that keeps his generals loyal—the promise of safety at home while they wage war abroad. If the deputy head of the GRU can be gunned down in his own building, no one is safe.

As surgeons fight to save Alekseyev’s life, the intelligence communities in London, Washington, and Kyiv will be watching closely. The man who allegedly authorized the use of Novichok on British soil has now faced his own reckoning, not in a courtroom, but in a pool of blood on a Moscow floor.