I'm Still Waiting for Justice

[Rogue Valley]

My Son's Father Was Killed While Reporting on a Private Russian Militia. I'm Still Waiting for Justice | Time

Journalist Irina Gordienko poses in the headquarters of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta in Moscow on July 15.

7/30/19
One year ago, on July 30, 2018, three Russian journalists were shot to death and their bodies left on the side of a road near a conflict zone in central Africa. Their names were Orkhan Dzhemal, a renowned conflict reporter; Alexander Rastorguev, an award-winning filmmaker; and their cameraman, Kirill Radchenko. The purpose of their trip to the Central African Republic was to film a documentary about the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company which has been active in several African countries in recent years, and which is believed to have ties with the Russian military and the state. Authorities in Moscow say the reporters were killed in a random act of violence. It was a robbery gone wrong, goes the official line. But the colleagues of the victims have investigated the murders independently over the past year, and have come to a different conclusion — that known associates of the Wagner Group were involved in these murders.

Investigative journalist Irina Gordienko of the Novaya Gazeta (New Gazette), one of Russia’s last independent newspapers, talks about her frustrations with the Putin government regarding the murder of her ex-husband, reporter Orkhan Dzhemal in the Central African Republic (CAR) on July 30, 2018. Dzhemal, along with filmmaker Alexander Rastorguev and cameraman Kirill Radchenko (also murdered) were investigating what the Russian mercenary outfit Wagner Group PMC was doing in the faraway CAR. Although their deaths were staged to look like a robbery, it is now clear that they were executed by CAR rebels and Wagner mercenaries. Wagner often operates as an extension of the Russian MoD where the Kremlin desires plausible deniability. The government of Russia refuses to cooperate in the Dzhemal/Rastorguev/Radchenko murder investigation. The musings of Ms. Gordienko are available at the link above.

Note: The owner of Wagner Group PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, also owns the 24/7 Internet Troll Factory in St. Petersburg. He is under Western sanctions.