A 'crossbow killer' has admitted to killing a Russian oligarch nicknamed 'The Sausage King' to win over his victim's ex-wife, according to law enforcement.

50-year-old Alexander Mavridi shot 54-year-old meat mogul Vladimir Marugov as he relaxed in his sauna in Moscow, allegedly with hopes of marrying his rich former partner.

The suspect had bought a crossbow for £300 and hid in the tycoon’s garden waiting to shoot him.

Marugov's new wife Sabina Gaziyeva, 36, fled the scene naked, vaulting a fence to raise the alarm as her husband bled to death.

Mavridi knew the ex-wife Tatyana Marugova, and now authorities have said he confessed that he "wanted to marry" her and believed he had found a way to impress her.

She had confided to Mavridi that she was "very tired" of property squabbles with her ex, said Sergey Bakanov, an investigator for the Russian Investigative Committee.

The investigator explained that Mavridi told Marugova that he had a way to make her ex-husband "leave her alone".

Bakanov added: "Tatyana replied that this 'would be great'.

"It did not even occur to her that Mavridi was plotting murder."

Marugova, a wealthy poet, is not under investigation from Russian authorities.

It had been suspected that the two were in a sexual relationship after she said "many men can learn a lot from him", adding that he had been "courting" her and was "gallant and charismatic" while he acted as her "handyman".

However, the investigator said there was no evidence of a relationship at the time of the murder even though Mavridi had planned to impress and wed her.

Mavridi confessed to the murder after being arrested following an escape from a detention centre.

He was snared by facial recognition technology on a Moscow supermarket's camera after five weeks on the run.

Widow Gaziyeva, who passed a lie detector test on TV in an attempt to stop rumours that she was involved in the murder, told viewers: "I don’t have a version [explaining] the murder. It is very strange that these two people knew each other.

"There are 18 million people living in Moscow, and the fact that the suspected murderer knows his ex-wife amazes me."

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