I will never forget the moment I saw a photo of the journalist Alexander Rastorguev’s body. Sasha, as we called him, was a fixture on the Moscow documentary filmmaking scene and a warm-hearted mentor to my then-husband, whose films I produced. Sasha was a man who loved to tease you in public but a stalwart and generous friend in private.
This man, who once squeezed my shoulder and whispered, “Always remember you’re a good person, Antonova,” had been executed in an efficient manner, shot in the heart with multiple rounds that likely came from an AK or AKM assault rifle. He was killed alongside his colleagues Orkhan Dzhemal and Kirill Radchenko in the Central African Republic, while investigating the local dealings of a notorious Russian private military company. This atrocity occurred in 2018, and it has haunted everyone who knew and loved Sasha, Orkhan, and Kirill ever since.
