Russian authorities say a "lucrative impulse" was behind last year’s killing of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.
Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for the Investigative Committee, said on June 20 that five detained suspects from Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya had been promised at least 15 million rubles ($232,000) for killing Nemtsov.
Nemtsov, a Kremlin critic and former deputy prime minister, was gunned down near the Kremlin on February 27, 2015.
The suspected mastermind of the killing, Ruslan Mukhudinov, a member of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s security forces, remains at large.
Markin said Mukhudinov's role in the case is being investigated separately.
A lawyer for the Nemtsov family, Vadim Prokhorov, said on June 20 that the investigations into the killing cannot be considered completed until all organizers of the crime are identified and apprehended.
Nemtsov's relatives and lawyers have expressed skepticism about the probe, insisting that the killing must have been ordered by high-ranking Russian officials.
Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS