This status was removed a few months ago at the request of Mr Kadyrov.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Kadyrov said Maskhadov had frequently threatened Deniyev.
Mr Kadyrov later said sorry to fans but not to the official, insisting he deserved to be called corrupt.
Russia has relied on Kadyrov, a ruthless former rebel, to bring a degree of stability to Chechnya in recent years.
Mr Kadyrov has in fact been doing the job since November, when his predecessor was injured in a car crash.
But when Mr Kadyrov reaches out to pat it, the cub growls and bares its teeth, making sure the message is clear.
Whether Mr Kadyrov would have made much further progress is debatable.
The raid also triggered Mr Kadyrov's decision to switch sides.
Mr Kadyrov was more credible than average: his background as mufti, his time with the rebels and his experience as administrator gave him a unique mixture of levers of influence.
The Kremlin's contract with Mr Kadyrov is an extreme form of its bargain with many regional leaders: in return for elementary loyalty, they are able to do as they see fit.
He will be highly vulnerable: Mr Kadyrov's assassination was only the latest in a series of attacks, among them a car-bomb in December 2002 that destroyed the Chechen government headquarters in Grozny.
In the tribal world of Chechen politics, people tend to have local power bases (Mr Kadyrov's was his home village of Tsentoroi, Mr Saidullaev's is the town of Alkan-Yurt) but often lack wider support.
Mr Kadyrov has already won the upper hand here - now it is a question of whether his lightning-fast, sometimes unpredictable and often tough decisions, will bring the peace and stability which Chechens need so badly.
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