MOSCOW, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Investigative Committee, the country's main federal probe agency, Wednesday said it is investigating the murder of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic (CAR) Monday.
Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguev and Kirill Radchenko were working on a film on a Russian private military company, which allegedly assists local authorities. They were ambushed and killed by unidentified men some 200 km northeast of capital Bangui, on their way to meet a local contact, Russian online news organization Investigation Control Center said Monday.
Their driver managed to escape and informed the local authorities of the attack.
However, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson expressed doubt about the three reporters' presence in CAR, saying it is "an open question" what the reporters were actually doing in CAR. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook Wednesday that the trio had traveled to CAR on a tourist visa and had ignored warnings by the local law enforcement agencies not to leave the safety zone.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the Russian Embassy in CAR had not been informed of their presence in CAR.
It added that its staff are now in close contact with the local authorities to find out the circumstances of the deaths. They are also organizing to send the bodies back to Russia.
In the beginning of 2018, with the UN Security Council's consent, Russia sent an allocation of small arms and ammunition and five military and 170 civilian instructors to Bangui, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in April.
