Suspected shooter of senior Russian military intelligence officer reportedly confesses to crime

The man charged with attempting to assassinate a high-ranking official in Russia’s GRU foreign military intelligence agency in Moscow on Saturday has confessed to attempted murder, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday.

Though it accused the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) of ultimately ordering the hit, the FSB said that Lyubomir Korba had admitted carrying out the attempted assassination of Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, and that his alleged accomplice, Viktor Vasin, had also confessed to his role in the attack.

Korba was recruited by the SBU in August in his home town of Ternopil, in western Ukraine, according to the FSB, which alleged that he had been trained to shoot in Kyiv, and then dispatched to Russia to kill Alekseyev, arriving later that same month.

According to the FSB, Korba travelled to a secret location in the Moscow region where he was given a gun and a fob for Alekseyev’s apartment building, adding that he had been paid $2,000 per month in crypto while he tailed his target.

The FSB described Vasin, who rented housing for Korba, as a supporter of the late Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund, who had taken part in anti-Kremlin demonstrations in Moscow and who had spoken out online against amending the constitution to allow Putin to stay in power beyond two successive terms.

A third suspect who remains at large, Zinaida Serebritskaya, was also mentioned by the FSB. She allegedly rented an apartment in Alekseyev’s apartment building, and hid the fob for Kobra in a hiding place near Moscow. Serebritskaya apparently fled to Ukraine after the attack.

According to the FSB, Korba was detained with the assistance of UAE law enforcement agencies in Dubai on Saturday, having fled there immediately after shooting Alekseyev three times outside his apartment on Friday. Alekseyev was seriously injured in the attack but regained consciousness in hospital the following day and is not believed to have sustained life-threatening injuries.