Ukrainian assassination plot suspects surveyed multiple Russian MOD officials – FSB

The suspects in an assassination attempt on Russian General Vladimir Alekseyev had monitored several other high-ranking Defense Ministry officials, the country’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.

Alekseyev, the first deputy chief of Russia’s military intelligence agency GUR, was shot on Friday in the corridor of his apartment building in Moscow.

The prime suspect in the case is 65-year-old Ukrainian-born Russian citizen Lyubomir Korba. He was arrested in the United Arab Emirates at Russia’s request and transferred to Moscow over the weekend. Kiev has denied any involvement in the attack.

A third suspect in the attempt on Alekseyev’s life has been detained, the FSB said in a statement on Tuesday.

The agency identified him as Pavel Vasin, a Russian citizen in his mid-40s and the son of Korba’s other alleged accomplice, Viktor Vasin, who had been arrested earlier.

The younger Vasin’s confession “helped identify two more high-ranking officials in the Russian Defense Ministry who had been monitored by Korba and Viktor Vasin on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence, with the aim of carrying out further acts of sabotage and terrorism,” the statement read.

According to the FSB, Pavel Vasin purchased surveillance equipment for his father and Korba, while also providing vehicles that they used to surveil Russian Defense Ministry officials and pick up the gun used in the attack on Alekseyev from a cache.

He also assisted the other suspects in collecting data online about the targets that had been “selected by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU),” it said.