Police in the United Arab Emirates have accused a close ally of the leader of the Russian province of Chechnya of masterminding the assassination of Sulim Yamadayev, a former Chechen military commander.
Yamadayev was shot on March 28 in the car park of a luxury seaside apartment block in Dubai, one of seven emirates that make up the UAE.
"The leads in the case indicate that a top official in the Chechen government named Adam Delimkhanov, who is the deputy prime minister in Chechnya, is the mastermind behind Sulim Yamadayev's assassination," Lieutenant-General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, the Dubai police chief, said on Sunday.
Delimkhanov, a member of Russia's lower house, is considered a close friend and part of the inner circle of Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of Chechnya, who enjoys Moscow's backing.
Kadyrov has dismissed through a spokesman any suggestion that Yamadayev's killing was linked ...