Mystery as Russian general shot at close range - with equally curious response from the Kremlin

From the Skripal poisonings to the invasion of Ukraine to subverting American elections, it is hard to think of a Russian outrage Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev has not been involved in.

He is now fighting for his life in a Moscow hospital, the victim himself of foul play.

The military intelligence deputy chief had a role in so many of Vladimir Putin's acts of malice stretching back decades.

And he would have had no shortage of enemies.

And yet, this high-ranking soldier spy was so badly protected that his would-be killer was able to shoot him several times at close range in the stairwell of his own apartment building.

As in any cheap spy novel, the shooter is reported to have slipped in behind him, entering the building by posing as a food delivery courier.

That is not the only mystery about this astonishing attempted assassination.

The Kremlin's response to it has been curious too.

"It's clear", said spokesman Dmitri Peskov, "that such military leaders and high-ranking specialists are at risk during wartime. It's not the Kremlin's job to figure out how to ensure their safety."

You're on your own boys, seemed to be the message, hardly reassuring for some of Russia's highest-ranking and most decorated commanders. And Lt Gen Alekseyev is just the latest in a line of top Russians neutralised or attacked on home turf.

Officially, Russia is unsurprisingly blaming Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called it a terrorist act designed to "provoke, in turn, the goal of disrupting the negotiation process".

But in truth, there are any number of people who would have wanted Alekseyev dead.

He helped orchestrate the botched attempt to kill Sergei Skripal in Salisbury with the nerve agent Novichok.

He was deeply involved with Russia's murderous campaign in Syria that targeted hospitals, clinics and aid convoys.

He is alleged to have been involved in Russian efforts to undermine both the 2016 and 2020 US elections.

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And when Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner group mutinied and marched on Moscow, Lt Gen Alekseyev helped negotiate an end to its rebellion.

Mr Prigozhin himself, of course, would die some time later in a mysterious plane accident.

If Ukrainians were behind the attempt on the general's life, it would signal a catastrophic failure of security at the very top of Russia's military intelligence structure.

But it may just as well be the result of an internal power struggle within those elites.

Either way, the shooting bodes ill for the leadership of Putin's Russia.