Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said “an unidentified individual fired several shots” at Vladimir Alekseyev, a general who has a senior role in Russia’s general staff, before fleeing the scene.
“The victim has been hospitalised,” the agency added in a statement.
It did not say anything about the suspected perpetrator.
Several high-ranking military officials have been killed since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.
Kyiv has claimed responsibility for some of the hits.
A career military officer, Alekseyev is the first deputy chief of the Russian general staff, according to his online biography.
He led intelligence operations during the Russian intervention in Syria to support the now-ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.
And he was also despatched to negotiate with Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin during his attempted mutiny against Russian military top brass in 2023.
“Investigative actions and operational search measures are being carried out to identify the person or persons involved in committing the aforementioned crime,” Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.
Last month a Russian court sentenced an Uzbek man to life in prison for the 2024 killing of the head of the Russian army’s radiological, chemical and biological defence forces.
The general, Igor Kirillov, was killed when a booby-trapped scooter exploded as he left an apartment block in Moscow, in an attack Kyiv said it had orchestrated.
Moscow said, in what it said was an assassination attempt orchestrated by Ukraine.
There was no comment from Kyiv, which has claimed responsibility for some of the several high-ranking military officials that have been killed since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.
Russian investigators said Vladimir Alekseyev -- the deputy head of Moscow’s GRU military intelligence, sanctioned in the West for his alleged role in cyberattacks and charges that he organised a nerve agent attack on a Russian defector in Britain -- was shot by an “unidentified individual”.
It said the suspect fled the scene and the general was admitted to hospital.
In televised comments, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the “terrorist act”, accusing Kyiv of trying to “disrupt the negotiation process” searching for an end to the four-year war.
The Kremlin said its secret services were investigating the incident and keeping President Vladimir Putin informed.
“The special services are doing their job,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“We wish the general a speedy recovery. We hope that will be the case,” he added.
In a northwestern Moscow suburb, a forensic truck was parked outside an apartment block and investigators had cordoned off access, AFP reporters saw.
