Russian prosecutors have determined that a Chechen man who was the subject of a book by American journalist Paul Klebnikov ordered his murder, a spokesman said Thursday.
Vasiliy Lushchenko, a spokesman for prosecutor general's office, identified the man as Khozh-Zkhmed Nukhayev.
He said a total of four people are suspected of involvement in the killing; two are still at large, while two others are in police custody.
Klebnikov, a 41-year-old American of Russian descent who was editor of Forbes magazine's Russian edition, was gunned down last July outside the magazine's Moscow offices in one of the highest-profile attacks on a journalist in Russia in a decade.
Since the shooting, authorities have said two Chechens, Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhayev, were in custody.
But there was also ample speculation on Klebnikov's book, "Conversations With a Barbarian," which cast Nukhayev and other Chechen rebels in a sharply negative light.
The book was based on his interviews with Nukhayev, a former deputy prime minister in the Chechen separatist government.