 |
| Arkady Babchenko faked his death |
Ukrainian authorities revealed on Wednesday that they faked the death of a Russian journalist to catch someone they suspected of attempting to kill him.
This came less than a day after the reported death of Arkady Babchenko gripped Ukraine watchers as they tried to make sense of what seemed like the third sensational death of a journalist in just a few years.
Q: Who is Babchenko?
A: Babchenko, 41, is a Russian national who was a soldier during the country’s wars in Chechnya in the 1990s. He made his name in literary circles with his descriptions of brutality employed by the Russian army in its fight with the Chechens.
Babchenko, who now lives in Kiev, has also openly criticized Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s southern Crimea region and the ongoing pro-Russian separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine.
Q: How did Ukraine fake his murder?
A: Ukrainian authorities said Babchenko was fatally shot outside his home in Kiev on Tuesday and said Russia was to blame.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman called Babchenko a “true friend of Ukraine who told the world the truth about Russian aggression.” “And so they killed him,” Groysman said in a post on his Facebook page.
Babchenko showed up alive the next day at a press conference organized by the head of the government’s main security agency, the Security Service of Ukraine.
Babchenko apologized to his wife and others who had mourned him.
Q: What do we know about the suspect?
A: Russian special services recruited a Ukrainian citizen who convinced an acquaintance, a former participant in Ukraine’s Anti-Terrorism Operation, to kill Babchenko for 30,000 dollars, the Ukrainian agency’s head, Vasyl Hrytsak, told reporters.
The organizer was tasked with purchasing weaponry and ammunition on the black market from the conflict areas in eastern Ukraine, Hrytsak said.
His agency released a video of a middle-aged man being detained by undercover officers on a crowded street in broad daylight. He has been identified only by the initial “G.” Only the side of his face is visible in the video.
Q: What was the reaction to the stunt?
A: The Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said after the surprising press conference that “the best news is that Babchenko is alive,” according to a statement on her Facebook page.
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it was relieved that Babchenko is alive, and demanded that Ukraine explain why it felt it needed to lie to the world.
“Ukrainian authorities must now disclose what necessitated the extreme measure of staging news of the Russian journalist’s murder,” the organization said in a statement.
Reporters Without Borders issued a statement expressing its “deepest indignation after discovering the manipulation of the Ukrainian secret services.”
“It is always very dangerous for a government to play with the facts, especially using journalists for their fake stories,” the statement said.
Post A Comment: