Russians Murdered in the CAR

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russian-filmmakers-killed-in-africa-were-investigating-mercenaries-close-to-the-kremlin/2018/08/01/8dac1c8c-9589-11e8-818b-e9b7348cd87d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1a921da290e6

The Anti-Russia machine churns on but unlike most of the mainstream coverage, this story is actually interesting. The UN approved a deal for Russia to sell arms to the military of the Central African Republic. Of course this is spoken of in negative terms by Western mouthpieces like the Washington Post. Without a hint of irony or shame Western media outlets have in light of this story pointed to Moscow as fueling conflicts and warmongering.

Actually the move by Moscow is worthy of criticism and it's a sick reality that modern capitalist states build up huge military-industrial complexes which must find an outlet for their weapons. That said, Russia's weapons trade is but an infinitesimal fraction of Washington's. The Americans have nothing to criticise. It's the pot calling the kettle black.

Recently three Russian journalist-filmmakers were killed in the Central African Republic and yet it's not clear who killed them. Apparently as Russians they were investigating Russian mercenaries operating in the theatre. Again, while mercenaries are generally not the sort of people one would think of as 'nice', there are hordes of American and other Western mercenaries operating in Africa and around the world.

Do these mercenaries have ties to their respective militaries and governments? Well to some extent they almost always do. With very few exceptions mercenaries are almost always ex-soldiers, formerly attached in some capacity to national armies.

Some still have viable connections. For example as Americans (or Brits) they might be working for US interests, corporations, intelligence agencies or for other US allies and affiliates. Some mercenaries go truly 'mercenary' and will work for anyone and run the risk of being blacklisted back in the home country. Many will pick and choose who they work for hoping to keep channels open and bridges from being burned.

Yes, the Russians most certainly have mercenaries working abroad and I don't doubt some are connected to the Kremlin. Again, this is hardly shocking and the US (of all nations) has nothing to say and no moral standing to levy criticism. The bias of the Washington Post article is all too palpable.

All that said, who killed these journalists? Of course the Western media outlets would love it if they were killed by fellow Russians seeking to shut down their investigations. It's possible. They were being funded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky the dissident Russian oligarch based in London and enemy of Vladimir Putin.

But it's also possible that some of the CAR rebel groups killed them simply because they were Russians and at this point the people in the CAR know the government in Bangui is working with Moscow.

It's an item that I want to keep tabs on because it hints at a larger story.