TV Crew Killed in Africa Probed Mercenaries of `Putin's Cook'
Tony Halpin
(Bloomberg) -- Three Russian journalists who were murdered while on assignment in the Central African Republic were probing the activities of a mercenary group linked to an ally of President Vladimir Putin, according to the exiled oil tycoon who funded their trip.
Orkhan Dzhemal, Kirill Radchenko and Alexander Rastorguev were “on an investigation into Russian private mercenaries, in particular the Wagner group,†said Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former Yukos Oil Co. chief and Kremlin critic, who added that they were working with an investigative news organization that he funds. “These were brave men who were not prepared simply to collect documentary material, but wanted to ‘feel’ it in the palms of their hands,†Khodorkovsky said in a statement on his website.
According to three people familiar with the matter, Wagner is controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as “Putin’s Cook†because one of his companies, Concord Management, provides food services to the Kremlin. Prigozhin, who’s known Putin since the 1990s, denies any link to the shadowy military contractor that maintains a training camp at a commando base in southern Russia and deploys mercenaries to eastern Ukraine and Syria.
Continued at: https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/2018/08/01/tv-crew-killed-in-africa-probed-mercenaries-of-putin-s-cook#gs.ZF76dMs
Who hired the journalists:
https://www.khodorkovsky.com/murder-journalists-investigating-wagner-military-group/We'll see if we have any developments on this.
