'Salisbury poisonings mastermind' gunned down in Moscow

THE Russian general said to have set up the Salisbury poisonings has been gunned down at his Moscow flat.

- BY STEPHEN BEECH

Vladimir Alekseyev was in a critical condition last night after being shot several times by a gunman who fled.

Security staff trawled CCTV for clues after the attempted killing.

Lt Gen Alekseyev is a deputy head of the GRU military intelligence unit in the defence ministry that is behind covert ops outside Russia, including assassinations, spying and sabotage.

The UK and the EU accused him of overseeing the 2018 Wiltshire chemical weapons attack against double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, which killed mother of three Dawn Sturgess. Alekseyev, 64, was also sanctioned by the US for cyber interference in its 2016 election.

Wagner