Three Russian journalists were killed three days after landing at the International Airport in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. The Daily Beast writes that the Russian government would have you to believe that they were random victims of a robbery on a dangerous backroad they were traveling on at night. But their colleagues believe that they were set up for assassination, and perhaps stalked even before they arrived at the Bangui airport. In the weeks since the killing, The Daily Beast has worked with African, Russian, United Nations and other sources to pierce together a detailed picture of the final days of well-known investigative reporter Orkhan Dzhemal, 51, filmmaker Alexander Rastorguyev, 47, and cameraman Kirill Radchenko, 33.
The Central African Republic has become a new military and mining playground for Putin and his friends. It seems anything but random, then, that when three Russian journalists visited the country in late July, they were murdered just days after arriving https://t.co/fyY9eOBHxs
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 21, 2018
The journalists’ assignment was sponsored by the Investigations Management Center of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was once Russia’s richest man. He was jailed for almost a decade after challenging Putin’s authority. He lives in exile in London. The journalists aimed to produce a documentry film, tentatively titled Russia’s Mercenaries, which would expose the activities of the Russian government, the Russian military, Russian oligarchs, and Russian contractors in the Central African Republic and beyond.
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.
