Dossier Center: the journalists killed in the CAR were monitored by a gendarme associated with an employee of the company of businessman Prigozhin

Before the murder of Russian journalists in the Central African Republic, they were monitored by gendarme Emmanuel Cotofio, who communicated with an employee of the company of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is associated with the Wagner PMC, reports a Mediazona correspondent citing data from the Dossier center, which held a press conference about your investigation.

According to the center, the gendarme called the driver, who was with a group of journalists, more than 40 times. The center, citing data from the location of the security officer’s phone, claims that Kotofio was following the journalists and was at least close to the scene of their murder. The military identified him in a car with five other people, three of whom were believed to be Europeans. After the attack on journalists, he received a promotion.

In addition, the center assumes that Kotofio received training from Russian instructors in Sudan, and that he communicated with an employee of Prigozhin’s company, Alexander Sotov. Representatives of the center said that Sotov had more than 100 phone calls in July-August 2018 with Advisor to the President of the Central African Republic Valery Zakharov, also associated with Prigozhin.

In addition, the center claims that the M-Finance company, which they associate with Prigozhin, paid the local security minister, the police director, a certain intermediary and two other people in the Central African Republic approximately $5,000 a month for “adviser services.”

According to the Dossier, the fixer Martin, with whom the journalists were going to meet on the day of the murder, may not exist at all, and one of the participants in the attack could have had his phone number. The phone number given to the Russians by the correspondent of the Federal News Agency, also associated with Prigozhin, Kirill Romanovsky, was located next to the gendarmerie and the hotel in Bangui, where the journalists flew. Although they were supposed to meet Martin 400 kilometers from the city. In addition, the Dossier emphasizes that the journalists’ driver and Martin purchased phones and SIM cards registered under “false names.” The center also noticed that Romanovsky himself visited the CAR before the journalists’ trip, but did not tell them about it.

The Dossier cast doubt on the version of the robbery of journalists, pointing out, among other things, that, despite the high cost of gasoline in the republic, three cans remained at the scene of the murder.

On July 31, it became known about the murder of journalist Orkhan Dzhemal, director Alexander Rastorguev and cameraman Kirill Radchenko in the Central African Republic. In the CAR, they filmed a film about the work of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner PMC. The film crew prepared the film together with the Investigation Management Center, one of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s media projects. Soon after the incident, the ex-head of YUKOS stopped financing this project.

The journalists were killed while they were on their way to a meeting with a fixer (a consultant who helps organize filming) named Martin. At the same time, local driver Bienvenu Nduvokama was wounded as a result of the attack, but was able to escape, claimed . local authorities

On the same day, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case for the murder of Russians (Article 105 of the Criminal Code), but the conclusions of the investigation are still unknown.

Local officials claimed that the film crew was captured by 10 people who spoke Arabic. The official language of the Central African Republic is French. Authorities suggested that militants from the Muslim group Seleka were involved in the murder. However, the group denied this .

CAR's Minister of Mass Communications, Ange Maxime Kazaghi, later said that the journalists were killed after they refused to give up their car to the attackers.

A few days after the murder of the Russians, it turned out that they were introduced to the fixer consultant by an employee of the Federal News Agency (FAN), Kirill Romanovsky. This agency is associated with businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin - the latter was called the sponsor of Wagner PMC.

last fall Sources from the Dozhd TV channel said that the new “PMC Patriot” may be involved in the murder of journalists. The interlocutors said that the mercenaries could have staged the robbery.