Russia holds funerals for slain journalists

Russia on Tuesday held funerals for three journalists killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) who were investigating a Russian military contractor group for a media project founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The three men, reporter Orhan Dzhemal, director Alexander Rastorguyev and cameraman Kirill Radchenko, were killed on July 30 shortly after arriving in the war-torn country to report on the Wagner Group.

Wagner's contractors have been active in Ukraine and Syria, according to Western and independent Russian media reports as well as foreign governments.

Russia officially has military and civilian instructors in CAR to train local troops and experts have suggested they could be part of Wagner.

The Russian foreign ministry said initial evidence suggests the journalists were killed after resisting robbers.

The men's bodies were flown to Russia on Sunday.

The body of Dzhemal, a 51-year-old journalist and war correspondent who had worked for media including the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, was laid out in the courtyard of Moscow's main mosque for prayers with around 300 mourners, ahead of his burial in a city cemetery.

Dzhemal's youngest son gave a eulogy.

"If there were a few more people like this in the world, the world would be a lot better. I will try to be as great as my father," Mansur Dzhemal said.

The family of 47-year-old director Rastorguyev, whose documentary films including "Tender's Heat. Wild, Wild Beach" picked up international awards, held a funeral service in a Moscow Russian Orthodox church.

"His films are absolute works of genius," said Lyubov Arkus, a documentary maker and editor of film magazine Seance.

She called him an "uncompromising radical" for whom "meaning was more important than career."

The family of cameraman Radchenko held a private memorial ceremony for the 33-year-old who had spent months covering the Syrian conflict for ANNA News.

The trio were sent to Africa by a centre for investigative journalism set up by Khodorkovsky, a critic of President Vladimir Putin, who lives in exile in Britain after spending a decade in jail.

Russia has opened a murder probe and its investigators are questioning the dead men's colleagues and relatives.