MOSCOW (AP) — Funerals have been held in Moscow for three Russian journalists who were killed during a reporting trip in Central African Republic.

Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguyev and Kirill Radchenko were shot last week while investigating a Russian military contractor and Russia's interests in the African country's mining industries. Their funerals in Russia took place Tuesday.

Exiled Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who financed the journalists' work, said the reporters were looking into a private security firm, known as Wagner, which operates in CAR.

The Russian company is linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a St. Petersburg entrepreneur dubbed "Putin's chef" because his restaurants hosted President Vladimir Putin's dinners with foreign dignitaries.

Central African Republic officials said men wearing turbans and speaking Arabic ambushed the journalists as they traveled by car at night.