Russia Probes Car Crash That Killed Seven Central Asians

Russian authorities are investigating a car crash that killed seven migrant workers from Central Asia, Russian media reported.

Police said the migrant workers were killed when their minivan collided with another vehicle on a highway in the village of Tarumovka in the Saratov region in the early hours of January 15.

Initial reports identified all of the victims as Kyrgyz nationals, but Russian and Central Asian authorities later said that four of them were from Kyrgyzstan, two from Uzbekistan, and one from Tajikistan.

Russian news agency TASS quoted local police as saying two of the victims were women.

Poverty and widespread unemployment have prompted hundreds of thousands of men and women in Central Asia to look for work in Russia.

Based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, TASS, lenta.ru