Adam Osmayev, a Chechen commander of a Ukrainian volunteer battalion has denied any involvement in the murder of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov.
Pro-Kremlin Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda had reported that "the organizers of the crime could have been Chechen militants" that it said have fought alongside government forces against Russian-backed separatists in the war in eastern Ukraine.
It cited an unnamed law enforcement source as claiming the masterminds of the murder were Osmayev and his wife, Amina Okuyeva.
Nemtsov was shot dead on February 27 on a Moscow bridge just meters away from the Kremlin.
Osmayev told Russia's Dozhd TV station on March 14 that the accusation was "complete nonsense, which isn't even worth commenting on." Osmayev said he viewed Nemtsov positively and news about his murder was "painful" to learn.
Osmayev was arrested in Ukraine in 2012, at Moscow's behest, on suspicion of plotting to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin, but was released in November 2014.
He then joined a Ukrainian volunteer battalion named after Dzhokhar Dudayev, the Chechen rebel leader who fought against Russia in the early 1990s.