Apparently, one of the Tajiks who opened fire in the training camp was a 24-year-old man who had been working in a Moscow restaurant to earn money to get married in Tajikistan.

In a recent segment, RT's director of broadcasting Anton Krasovsky suggested drowning or burning Ukrainian children who criticise Russia, before claiming the nation should not exist and that citizens who resist Russia should be shot.

RT has built a global following in recent years but has faced increasing pressure from Ukraine to have it banned for encouraging “genocidal” sentiments, as Russia continues its push to claim territory from its neighbour.

Speaking to Russian science fiction author Sergei Lukyanenko about Ukraine's attitudes towards Russia during the 1980s when Moscow controlled the nation, Krasovsky said children who criticised the regime should have been “thrown straight into a river with a strong current”.

“They should have been drowned in the Tysyna,” Krasovsky said. “Just drown those children, drown them ... they could be shoved into huts and burned.”

In a segment of the interview that has made waves on social media, Krasovsky also chuckled at reports of Russian soldiers raping elderly Ukrainian women during the invasion.

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Presenters on Russian television have routinely dismissed reports of war crimes committed since the Ukraine invasion in February.

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But Krasovsky's blatant call for dissenters to be burnt and drowned appears to have been a step too far.

Margarita Simonyan, RT's editor-in-chief, suspended the senior presenter just three hours later over his “disgusting” comments.