Vladimir Alekseyev (general)

An ethnic Ukrainian, Vladimir Stepanovich Alekseyev was born on 24 April 1961 in the village of Holodky, Khmelnyk Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the son of an invalid father and nurse mother. Residents of the village later recalled that Alekseyev was interested in a military career from a young age. He completed secondary school and was conscripted, failing to gain admission to a military school. Finishing his conscript service, Alekseyev gained admission to the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School, graduating in 1984. After moving to Russia he married a Russian woman, Galina, with whom he had two children.[1] Alekseyev served in Spetsnaz units, rising to chief of the intelligence directorate of the Moscow Military District headquarters, and then in the same position in the Far Eastern Military District. Later he was transferred to the central staff of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), where he headed the 14th department, responsible for the Spetsnaz.[2] Alekseyev was appointed chief of staff and first deputy head of the Main (Intelligence) Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in 2011, and was promoted to lieutenant general.[3] The last time Alekseyev visited his birthplace was September 2014 for the funeral of his mother, after the War in Donbas began.[1]

Alekseyev was sanctioned by the United States for organizing "malicious cyberattacks" in the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[4] During the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war, he supervised military intelligence officers. For his "courage and heroism, shown in the execution of military duty," Alekseyev was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation by a secret decree in 2017.[3] For orchestrating the 2018 poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, Alekseyev was sanctioned by the European Union in January 2019.[5]

In May 2022, he was identified as the top military intelligence commander responsible for Ukraine by Tsargrad TV, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, signaling a switch of responsibility for targeting Ukraine in intelligence operations away from the 5th Service of the FSB.[6] Alekseyev was among the Russian representatives in the negotiations for the July 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative, and at the time Bellingcat investigator Christo Grozev identified him as supervising Russian private military companies.[7]

When the Wagner Group rebellion began on 23 June 2023, Alekseyev appeared in a video in which he condemned the actions of the Wagner Group as a coup, a "stab in the back of the country and president. Only the president has the authority to appoint senior military leadership, and you are trying to encroach on his power."[8] Hours later, Alekseyev and deputy minister of defense Yunus-bek Yevkurov negotiated with Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in Rostov-on-Don.[9]

Alekseyev is a recipient of the following decorations:[3]

• Hero of the Russian Federation
• Order of St. George, 4th class (2022)
• Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class with swords
• Order of Alexander Nevsky
• Order of Suvorov
• Order of Courage (2)