A PROMINENT Saint Petersburg-based Napoleon expert has confessed to murdering his young lover and former student and dismembering her body in a grisly crime that sent shock waves across Russia.

Oleg Sokolov, a 63-year-old history lecturer who received France’s Legion d’Honneur in 2003, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of murder after he was hauled out of the icy Moika River with a backpack containing a woman’s arms.

“He has admitted his guilt,” Sokolov’s lawyer Alexander Pochuev said Sunday, adding he regretted what he had done and was now cooperating.

Sokolov was reportedly drunk and fell in as he tried to dispose of the body parts.

Sokolov teaches history at Saint Petersburg State University, President Vladimir Putin’s alma mater, and was close to the Russian authorities.

He told investigators that he shot and killed his lover during an argument and then sawed off her head, arms and legs, local media reported.

Pochuev suggested Sokolov may have been under stress or emotionally disturbed.

“He is an elderly person,” he said, adding he was being treated for hypothermia in a hospital.

Police discovered the decapitated body of Anastasia Yeshchenko, 24, with whom Sokolov had co-authored a number of works, and a blood-stained saw at his home.

The historian, who also taught at Sorbonne University, is the author of books on French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

He acted as a historical consultant on several films and took part in historical re-enactments of the Napoleonic wars. Both he and his lover studied French history and liked to wear period costumes, with Sokolov dressing up as Napoleon. (SD-Agencies)