The jihadist who beheaded a Chechen man in an Islamic State (ISIS) video is an ethnic Russian from a far northern city, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Friday, according to AFP.
"The supposed killer is identified as a resident of Noyabrsk, an ethnic Russian," Kadyrov, the strongman leader of the Chechnya region in Russia's North Caucasus, wrote on Instagram.
Kadyrov named the victim as Magomed Khasiyev.
In the video released Wednesday, the prisoner confesses in Russian to having been recruited by Moscow to spy on the jihadist group and its Russian members.
It is the first ISIS video to show the execution of a Russian since Moscow began air strikes in Syria to support the Syrian government.
While conceding that Russian secret services are operating in Syria, Kadyrov said Khasiyev was not working with them and claimed he could have been killed as a result of the CIA leaking false information to the jihadists.
"We have never hidden the fact that there are efficiently operating groups in Syria that carry out missions to neutralize bandits who present a real threat to Russia or voice such threats," Kadyrov said.
"However, Khasiyev had nothing to do with them," he stressed, though he also admitted he could not "completely rule out that (Khasiyev) had some link with some Russian agencies."
He suggested the Chechen likely got drawn into the ranks of ISIS "through deception" and later "saw the true face of the bandits".
Life News website identified the executioner as 28-year-old Anatoly Zemlyanka, saying he is wanted by Russian police.
Kadyrov said the victim was an orphan from the Urals mountains who was adopted by a Chechen woman.
He used the name Yevgeny Yudin until 2012, Kadyrov said, which was reportedly when he became a Muslim.
Over the last three years he lived in the city of Maikop in the Russian North Caucasus, Kadyrov added.
Khasiyev's adoptive mother told Life News that in recent years he had distanced himself from her family and she did not know he had gone to Syria.
The ISIS video also included threats towards Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The terrorist who carried out the execution spoke in Russian before decapitating his victim, stating, "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin, you dog, we attacked [Syrian President Bashar] Assad prior to your arrival as well as the Americans and their allies - we will also attack you."
AFP contributed to this report.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)