Russian authorities on Monday identified a Chechen man assassinated in the United Arab Emirates as a prominent foe of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

Russian Consul Sergei Krasnogor named the dead man as Sulim Yamadayev. A former rebel chief, he had challenged the Moscow-backed Kadyrov for control of Chechen security forces until last year, when he was dismissed from the command of an elite battalion and forced to flee.

"I just received confirmation from the Dubai police that he was killed," Krasnogor told Reuters. "We haven't personally seen any papers or a passport yet."    

Dubai police said on Saturday that a 36-year-old Chechen had been shot dead. A police spokesman said on Monday the man had died instantly.

Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper quoted Yamadayev's brother Isa as saying unidentified gunmen had attacked Sulim in an underground garage at his home.

Last September, their brother Ruslan was killed by unidentified gunmen in central Moscow. Kadyrov rejected accusations he had been behind the murder and said the killers wanted to discredit him and to destabilise Chechnya.

Chechen exiles say three Chechens have been assassinated in the last six months in Istanbul and one in Vienna. Kadyrov has strongly rejected allegations he could be linked to those murders.

Yamadayev fought against Russia in the first Chechen war of 1994-96, when Moscow suffered a humiliating defeat and had to pull out of the separatist southern province.

But like some other leading rebels, including Kadyrov, he switched to the Russian side after then President Vladimir Putin sent troops in 1999 to retake mainly Muslim Chechnya.

Yamadayev became the commander of the Vostok battalion, a unit of battle-hardened former rebels which played a key role in subduing large-scale separatist resistance. In 2005 he was named a Hero of Russia, the top national honour.

Ramzan Kadyrov, who took over the job of Chechen leader from his father Akhmad who was assassinated in 2004, has tried to concentrate power in his hands and has drawn fire from human rights groups alarmed at alleged abuses in the province. - Reuters