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MOSCOW (AP) — Investigators in Russia's eastern Siberia region have opened a criminal probe into a videotaped killing of a bear.
Footage released on YouTube this week showed two heavy duty trucks chase and run over a bear into the snow several times with a man filming the video shouting: "Squash him!" The gruesome killing shocked many in Russia, prompting the Investigative Committee, which typical deals with high-profile crimes, to open a probe on the charges of animal cruelty.
Russia's natural resources and environment minister has called for prison time for the perpetrators.
The investigators said in a statement Wednesday that they have found that the men driving the trucks were doing prospecting in the oil and gas-rich Yakutia region.
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