FSB makes third arrest after attempted assassination of top Russian intelligence official

The Russian security services have arrested a third person in connection with the attempted assassination of a senior military intelligence official in Moscow on Friday, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Tuesday.

The FSB named the third suspect to have been detained by the investigation into the hit on the deputy head of the GRU military intelligence agency, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, as Pavel Vasin.

Vasin is the son of Viktor Vasin, who was arrested for his role in the shooting on Saturday, and who has reportedly confessed to his involvement in the attack.

Pavel Vasin, whose alleged role was to provide transportation as well as to track Alekseyev’s movements and to get hold of weapons, has admitted his role in the plot, the FSB said, adding that he had also confessed to surveilling two other Russian Defence Ministry employees.

The agency also said that Pavel Vasin had been recruited to take part in the failed assassination attempt by his own father and Lubomir Korba, the shooter.

According to information leaked from the investigation that Novaya Gazeta Europe has seen, Pavel Vasin appears to have subscribed to various Russian nationalist groups on Telegram, including far-right extremist group Russkaya Obschina and pro-war group Forum Z.

The FSB has always maintained that Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency was ultimately responsible for ordering the attack on Alekseyev, and believes that another suspected accomplice, Zinaida Serebritskaya, fled to Ukraine immediately after the attack where she is still thought to be at large.