Vladimir Alekseyev, a senior GRU official, was shot three times in the back in Moscow on Friday

The Russian authorities have detained two suspects in connection with the attempted assassination of a senior military intelligence general in Moscow, including the alleged gunman, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced. It added that the purported would-be assassin was detained in Dubai with the help of the UAE authorities.

On Friday, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, the first deputy chief of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), was shot three times in the back outside his residence and taken to the hospital.

In a statement on Sunday, the FSB said the alleged gunman - identified as 65-year-old Russian citizen Lyubomir Korba - was detained in Dubai with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates authorities and handed over to Russia.

The agency added that it identified alleged accomplices in the attack, including Russian citizen Viktor Vasin, 66, who was detained in Moscow, and Zinaida Serebritskaya, 54, who it said fled to Ukraine.

The agency released a video apparently showing the alleged gunman leaving the building where the attack took place and discarding what looked like a pistol fitted with a silencer into the snow before boarding a bus. Another clip shows FSB operatives escorting a suspect with his face blurred from an aircraft.

Commenting on the assassination attempt, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called it a "terrorist act," adding that it "once again confirmed the focus of the [Vladimir] Zelensky regime on constant provocations aimed... at disrupting the negotiation process." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga has insisted that Kiev had nothing to do with the attack.

Alekseyev has held the post since 2011, and during his tenure oversaw counterterrorism operations in Syria. In 2017, he was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation.

(RT.com)