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Main suspect in Nemtsov murder left Russian interior troops service in 2015

Zaur Dadaev was officially dismissed from the Sever battalion of the Chechen interior ministry after the murder of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov was committed

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. One of the suspects in Russian politician Boris Nemtsov’s murder, Zaur Dadaev, left service in Russia’s interior troops earlier this year, a top-ranking interior troops commander told Rossiya-1 television channel on Tuesday.

"His resignation tender was satisfied. From January 27 to February 28, he was on an annual leave. When he returned from the leave, he was dismissed in line with the established procedure," said Igor Grudnov, the first deputy commander of the North Caucasian interior troops of the Russian interior ministry.

Dadaev is the only one out of the five suspects in Nemtsov’s murder to admit his guilt.

Zaur Dadaev served in the Sever battalion of the Chechen interior ministry for about ten years, In 2010, he was awarded the Order of Courage for courage and valour demonstrated while performing his military duties in the North Caucasus. He received the order from Rashid Nurgaliev, the then Russian Interior Minister.

Earlier, Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic, said on his Instagram account he had known "Zaur as a true patriot of Russia." According to his post, before leaving the military service Dadaev had the rank of a lieutenant and held the position of a battalion’s deputy commander in a regiment of the 46th separate operative brigade of Russia’s Interior Ministry troops.

"Zaur was one of the bravest men in the regiment," Kadyrov said. "He displayed particular courage in an operation against a large group of terrorists near Benoi. He was awarded the Order of Courage, and medals For Bravery and For Services to the Chechen Republic. I am certain that he was sincerely dedicated to Russia and prepared to give his life for the Motherland. The real reasons and motives behind Dadaev’s dismissal from the Russian Interior Ministry troops are unclear to me."

"I have instructed Chechnya’s Security Council Secretary Vakhit Usmayev to conduct through investigation of Zaur Dadayev’s resignation and to scrutinize his behavior and morale on the eve of leaving the service," Kadyrov said.

Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition politician and a lawmaker of the Yaroslavl Region Duma legislature/, was shot dead on Moscow’s Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge just a stone’s throw from the Kremlin overnight to February 28. The principal witness of the crime, Ukrainian national Anna Duritskaya, who had been with Nemtsov at the moment of his murder, left for Ukraine after being interrogated. She pledged she would cooperate with investigators.

Nemtsov was buried at the Troyekurov Cemetery in Moscow on March 3.