A woman who married a contract killer without knowing his sinister past was murdered by her husband who was seen carrying away her corpse in a suitcase.

Alexander Anufriev was jailed for 15 years for strangling his wife after she had repeatedly begged police in the Russian city of Cheboksary for help, saying her life was in danger.

Officers are accused of ignoring her desperate pleas for protection.

Chilling video footage shows Anufriev, 46, carrying away the corpse of his wife Anna Ovchinnikova, 37, who was the mother of his two children.

He loaded the suitcase into a waiting taxi driven by a former cell mate from prison.

Alexander Anufriev was jailed for 15 years for killing his wife Anna
Anna Ovchinnikova had no idea about her husband's grim past

In the aftermath of the 2018 murder it was believed that she knew of his previous two convictions as a hired assassin and believed she could tame the killer.

But evidence heard in court established he had hidden his sinister past as a 1990s gangster from his wife, a tattoo artist, and her family.

And by an oversight his name was not on a police database of killers released from prison so officers did not realise he was a convicted murderer when she complained about his threats, it was claimed.

Anufriev was a former hired assassin
The victim had pleaded with police to help

In 1998 as a hired assassin he had strangled a man using a shoelace.

Anufriev also killed a woman who witnessed the crime.

He was released from jail in 2011 and met and married Ovchinnikova soon afterwards.

Police seven times refused to take action against him despite her haunting written testimony complaining how she had been beaten by him.

Alexander Anufriev has been jailed for 15 years
Anna's body was put into a suitcase by her husband

She demanded a divorce - but this triggered the row that led to him punching her in the face, then strangling her to death, said investigators.

After heaving the suitcase into the taxi, he buried her corpse near a city reservoir.

Police were alerted by the victim’s father Nikolay Ovchinnikov after her sudden disappearance.

Anufriev confessed to the killing.

He said he was “drunk” and that the couple were arguing over her demand for a divorce.

They had a daughter Yulia, six, and a son, less than one year old.

After the trial, the victim’s father said his sentence of 14 years was “unbearably” lenient.

Victim's father Nikolay Ovchinnikov said the sentence was 'unduly lenient'

He claimed the murder was premeditated and Anufriev had illegally sold his daughter’s car and jewellery before killing her.

He accused the police of negligence in not listening to her warnings that her life was in danger, and failing to have the murderer listed as a killer on their database.

Anufriev's threats to Ovchinnikova mean that he should have been immediately rearrested for flouting the conditions of his earlier release from his double murder conviction, said the father who plans to lodge an appeal for a longer sentence.