Watchdog

Authorities in Russia’s Khabarovsk region say they are investigating allegations that several police officers carried the coffin of a local gang leader during his funeral and that employees of the prosecutors’ office also attended the funeral.

The allegations emerged on social media after a video was posted on YouTube on January 8 that shows the funeral procession -- a large crowd of people walking on a motorway followed by several vehicles.

Pallbearers can be seen carrying the coffin. But the footage was recorded from a distance and it was not clear whether any of the pallbearers were wearing police uniforms.

A female voice in the video says the footage shows the funeral procession of Yury Zarubin, who is known by the nickname Zaruba and was buried on January 8 in the city of Amursk.

The woman who speaks in the video also claims that workers dispersed sand ahead of the funeral procession to de-ice the snow-covered highway.

Some viewers commented that several police officers and employees of the prosecutors' office attended the funeral.

The press office for the regional police has denied that any law enforcement officials were present at the funeral.

Irina Shchyogoleva, the head of the press office, said on January 10 that police are investigating the video posted under the YouTube username "ihar felyzen."

She said the person who posted footage has previously been listed by police as a suspected criminal, but she would not provide further details about the individual.

Shchyogoleva said he was "being interviewed" to "establish reasons" why the video was shared online.

Shchyogoleva also said lawyers were "assessing the extent of the damage it inflicted to the reputation of police."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the local prosecutor's office denied that any of its employees attended the funeral, including the chief prosecutor in the city of Amursk.

The spokesperson told state media that the prosecutor had been away in the regional capital, Khabarovsk City, when the funeral took place.

Russia's media regulator says it is investigating whether British broadcaster BBC has broken Russian law by allegedly promoting Islamist extremism.

"Checks are under way into whether the BBC's Internet sites...comply with Russian law. To date, material has been uncovered which transmits the ideological principles of a terrorist group (quotes of the terrorist al-Baghdadi)," Roskomnadzor said in a statement on January 10.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the leader of the extremist group Islamic State.

"An investigation is under way into whether these materials are in compliance with the norms of Russian legislation," the Russian watchdog's statement also said.

It also said it would be carrying out a review of the BBC's broadcasting in Russia from January 14 to January 31 and had requested all the necessary documentation from the broadcaster.

Last month, Roskomnadzor said it had started checking the legality of the BBC World News channel's Russian operations and its websites.

The BBC said at the time that it "works in Russia in full compliance with the country's laws and regulations to deliver independent news and information to its audiences."

The announcement came a day after British media watchdog Ofcom said it was considering sanctioning Russia's state-run broadcaster RT, which it accused of violating impartiality rules in seven programs earlier this year.

The British regulator was especially critical of RT's coverage of the March nerve-agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English town of Salisbury.

Britain's government and its allies blamed the Russian government for the poisoning. Moscow denies any involvement.

Since 2012, Ofcom has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality and of broadcasting "materially misleading" content.

With reporting by dpa, Reuters, and the BBC