MOSCOW. June 6 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has urged the Central African Republic (CAR) to expedite the inquiry into the killing of three Russian journalists at his meeting with CAR counterpart Sylvie Baipo-Temon.
"The ministers reaffirmed the mutual inclination of Russia and the CAR to broaden fruitful cooperation in the political, trade, economic, investment, humanitarian, and other areas, including that of law enforcement," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.
"Lavrov called for expediting the inquiry into the killing of three Russian journalists in the CAR in July 2018 to the maximum extent," the statement said.
The sides "shared a profound exchange of opinions on the developments in the CAR with emphasis on the task of promoting the national reconciliation process," it said.
"The Russian side expressed its readiness to continue energetic assistance to Bangui's normalization efforts together with the Central African Republic's administration, the African Union, and international partners of the CAR, as well as at the UN and the UN Security Council," the statement said.
The killing of three Russian journalists in the CAR was reported on July 31, 2018. Orkhan Dzhemal, Kirill Radchenko, and Alexander Rasturguyev came to Africa to make a film about private military companies in collaboration with former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Investigation Control Center.
The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on murder counts. The UN joined the inquiry.
Investigators said that the perpetrators were black and that they had shot and killed the journalists when they tried to resist being robbed.