Assassinated Journalist, Arkady Babchenko, Alive and Well

[Nutso]

Arkady Babchenko: Ukraine staged fake murder of journalist

Ukraine staged the murder of a Russian dissident journalist in Kiev on Tuesday in what it said was a sting operation to foil a Russian assassination plot.

Arkady Babchenko sent shock waves around the world when he arrived at a news conference on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he was reported dead.

The head of Ukraine's security services, Vasyl Hrytsak, said the elaborate sting was set up to catch hitmen paid by Russian forces.

Police said they had made one arrest.

Babchenko's wife said on Tuesday that she found him at the entrance to their apartment block with bullet wounds in his back, and he was reported to have died in an ambulance on the way to hospital.

That story was widely reported by press around the world, until Wednesday's sudden and extraordinary development.

What do we know about the operation?

Babchenko said he was informed a month ago about an alleged Russian plot to kill him. He said he agreed to cooperate with a counter-operation and was in constant contact with Ukrainian security services over the course of the past month.

He added that he thought security services had been planning the operation for up to two months.

Mr Hrytsak said the operation began after Ukrainian security services were informed about a Russian plot to kill the journalist.

He alleged Russian security forces had recruited a Ukrainian citizen to find hitmen within Ukraine. He said the citizen approached several acquaintances, including war veterans, offering $30,000 (£22,600) for the contract killing, one of whom revealed the plot to the security services.

The security services then informed Babchenko, apparently determining that the only way to reveal the plotters was to stage a fake hit.

Babchenko said that his wife Olechka and his children were aware of the plan, but he publicly apologised to her at the press conference. "Olechka, I am terribly sorry," he said, "but there were no other options".

Mr Hrytsak said the man detained by police was the Ukrainian who attempted to find a hitman.

Hours after the news broke, Babchenko tweeted to say he would "die at 96" after "dancing on Putin's grave", referring to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

[Graham Kennedy]

I appear to have gone to sleep and woken up in a spy novel...

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I appear to have gone to sleep and woken up in a spy novel...

Better than how we Americans went to sleep and woke up in a bad farce for a government. At least worse than usual...

[Nutso]

'We found Russian hit-list of 47 people', Ukraine tells allies

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine, seeking to reassure its Western allies after faking the murder of a Russian dissident to thwart what it said was a plot on his life, told them on Friday its ruse led to the discovery of a hit-list of 47 people whom Russia planned to kill abroad.
The Kiev authorities drew both praise and consternation this week for staging the fake shooting of Arkady Babchenko, an exiled journalist, which they said was necessary to protect him and dozens of others who were targeted in a genuine Russian plot.

Russia has poured scorn on Ukraine’s allegations while some organisations and commentators criticized Kiev for the kind of trickery which Ukraine routinely accuses Russia of using.

Ukraine’s credibility matters as it counts on Western financial support and sanctions on Moscow in its standoff with Russia over the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and a Russian-backed separatist conflict in which more than 10,000 people have been killed.

General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, one of the few Ukrainian officials who knew about the ruse in advance, briefed the ambassadors of the United States, the European Union and other countries.

In a statement after the meeting, Lutsenko said faking the murder was necessary because it allowed Ukrainian investigators to obtain more information about the list of people targeted and about who had ordered the murder.

As a result, “the investigation received a list of 47 (!) people who could be the next victims of terrorists,” he wrote on Facebook.

He did not provide any names but said the list included prominent Ukrainian and Russian journalists.

The 47 number is higher than the 30 people, including Babchenko, whom Ukraine originally believed were targets.

The investigation also gleaned important evidence linking the plot to Russian intelligence services, which would be divulged later, Lutsenko said.