Russia: Gunman kills top general recruited by Kiev

MOSCOW: Russia said on Monday the gunman who shot and wounded a senior Russian military intelligence officer in Moscow last week and then fled to Dubai was acting on orders from Kiev. Top general Vladimir Alekseyev was shot several times in his Moscow apartment building and taken to hospital. During Moscow’s nearly four-year offensive in Ukraine, there has been a series of assassinations targeting Russian military officials across Russia.The Russian Federal Security Service security service said that after being recruited and trained in Ukraine, Lyubomir Korba, a Russian citizen born in 1960, shot and killed Alexeyev “on the orders of the Ukrainian SBU” security service.Russia’s FSB said Korba’s son, who lives in Poland, was involved in his recruitment. A Russian man in his 60s was arrested in Dubai for attempted murder and handed over to Russia, Moscow said over the weekend. “On the day of the assassination, Korba entered the building where the soldier lived and when he appeared in the elevator lobby, he fired four shots.” Korba was recruited last year in Ternopil, Ukraine, and sent to Russia via Moldova and Georgia, the FSB said in a statement, adding that he was promised $30,000 for the killing. He allegedly acted together with two accomplices, named Viktor Vasin and Zinaida Serebritskaya.It accuses Vasin of being a supporter of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Ukraine claimed responsibility for some of the killings in Russia but denied being behind Alexeev’s assassination. The Kremlin acknowledged last week that Russian military officials had been threatened during the offensive in Ukraine. AFP