Russian reporter who died after falling from his fifth-floor balcony had been investigating allegations about Deripaska and Manafort made by Belarusian escort Nastya Rybka (and exposed by @navalny) https://t.co/M3zWQdwYqu

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 17, 2018

I didn’t know that’s what he was working on. Hmm…

Last week, the outgoing head of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, said that “a couple hundred” Russian mercenaries died in the clash in Deir al-Zour province. The mercenaries were apparently taking part in an attack by pro-Syrian government fighters on the headquarters of a US ally, the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Weeks later Russia admitted that several dozen Russian citizens had been either killed or wounded, but stressed they were not regular soldiers.

Last month, Borodin had written that three of those killed had come from the Sverdlovsk region in the Urals, in which Yekaterinburg is the main city. Two of the men were from the towns of Asbest and one from Kedrovoye, he said.

He had also investigated political scandals, including allegations made by a Belarusian escort known as Nastya Rybka in a video posted by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.