'Murdered' Russian journalist says police faked his death to catch his assailant

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption 'Dead' journalist appears at news conference Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko turned up at a news conference in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday less than 24 hours after police reported he had been shot and killed at his Kiev apartment building. (May 30)

Arkady Babchenko, a fiercely anti-Kremlin journalist who had been reported shot and killed in Kiev, showed up alive Wednesday at a news conference to explain that police faked his death to catch the man who ordered a hit on him.

To the applause and gasps of the press, Babchenko took the floor at the news conference in the Ukrainian capital and apologized to the friends and family — including his wife — who mourned for him and were unaware of the plan.

His wife, who was unaware of the plot, found him outside their apartment entrance Tuesday evening "bleeding" from what she thought were gunshot wounds to his back. As part of the ruse, police claimed he died in an ambulance en route to the hospital.

“I want to say sorry for what you felt. I had to bury my friends and colleagues many times,” Babchenko told reporters at the televised briefing at the offices of the Ukrainian Security Service, the Kyiv Post reports.

According to the Ukrainian Security Service, Russian special services allegedly ordered Babchenko killed and paid an unnamed Ukrainian citizen $40,000 to organize the killing. The Ukrainian Security Service said he, in turn, paid a potential gunman $30,000 to carry out the hit, the newspaper says.

But when the security service learned of the plot, they recruited the gunman to work for them as a double agent to fake the shooting and arrest the organizer, who has been apprehended.

The security service said, according to the Post, that Babchenko's death was intended to be the first of some 30 planned killings of Russian citizens in Ukraine allegedly ordered by Russian special services.

Vasily Gritsak, head of the security service, explained the elaborate scheme, which had been in the works for a month, to reporters at the news conference where Babchenko appeared.

Gritsak said the alleged organizer was also tasked to buy arms and ammunition, including 300 Kalashnikov assault rifles, to set up bases with arms and ammunition in central Ukraine to carry out more killings, Interfax reported.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko said the double agent, a former secial operations soldier in eastern Ukraine, will testify on behalf of the state in the trial of the alleged oranizer.

On Facebook, Ukrainian prime minister Petro Poroshenko congratulated the security services for the "brilliant operation," but said the threat continues.

"Moscow is hardly likely to settle down," he said. "I have ordered that Arkady and his family be provided with 24-hour security."

In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry called the staged act "another anti-Russian provocation."

On Tuesday, Kiev and national police had said Babchenko, one of Russia’s best-known war reporters, had been shot three times in the back outside his apartment building and was found bleeding to death by his wife.

National Police spokesman Yaroslav Trakalo had told reporters that the purported killer had been waiting for Babchenko in the stairwell. A police composite portrait even described the "killer" as a tall man with a grey beard, in his 40s. He was wearing a denim hat, jacket and jeans, according to the Kyiv Post.

Some journalism-related organizations strongly criticized the faked killing, calling it "distressing."

Christophe Deloire, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, said his organization expresses its "deepest indignation after discovering the manipulation of the Ukrainian secret services, this new step of a war of information."

"It is always very dangerous for a government to play with the facts, especially using journalists for their fake stories," he said in a statement.

In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists, which had called for a swift investigation into the incident, said it was relieved that Babchenko is alive, but said Ukrainian authorities "must disclose what necessitated the extreme measure of staging news of the Russian journalist's murder."

The staged murder of journalist Arkady Babchenko by the Ukrainian Security Service is distressing. While the reappearance of the reporter may be a great relief, it is deeply regrettable that Ukraine's authorities have played with the truth, no matter their motive. — RSF in English (@RSF_en) May 30, 2018

Babchenko, 41, served in the Russian army during the two wars in Chechnya in the 1990s, and hosts a news program on Ukraine's ATR channel. Babchenko has assailed Moscow's annexation of Crimea, its support for separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine and the Russian campaign in Syria.

Some of his articles and posts outraged many Russians. In one, he said he felt no regret about the deaths of Russian army choir members and others from a December 2016 plane crash as they were heading to perform before Russian troops in Syria. Several Russian lawmakers even called for stripping Babchenko of his citizenship over the comment.

Later, after the Wednesday news conference, Babchenko went on Twitter to underscore that his tough views on Russian politics has not changed.

“I’ve promised to die when I’m 96, having danced on Putin’s grave and taking a selfie while standing on an Abrams [tank] on Tverskoi Boulevard” in Moscow,” he wrote. “I will try to do this.”

In the wake of the purported death, Ukraine Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said on Facebook he was convinced that "the Russian totalitarian machine didn’t forgive his honesty and integrity. A real friend of Ukraine who told the truth about Russian aggression.”

Mikhail Fedotov, head of the Kremlin human rights council and head of the Russian Union of Journalists, said Babchenko had his "own special vision of the world, with his very critical view of Russian politics. That’s why his murder is openly provocative.”

In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Twitter that "Ukrainian authorities should conduct a swift and thorough investigation" into Babchenko's murder.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also weighed in, saying “bloody crimes and total impunity have become routine for the Kiev regime" and demanded a prompt investigation.

Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, told Russian news agencies Wednesday that Russia would be happy to help with the investigation if Ukrainian authorities requested it.

Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker who serves as an adviser to the interior minister, said on Facebook that investigators would be looking at "Russian spy agencies' efforts to get rid of those who are trying to tell the truth about what is going on in Russia and Ukraine."

In 2016, Ukranian-Belarussian journalist Pavel Sheremet, who had also left Russia, was killed by car bomb in central Kiev as he was driving to work, according to the Kyiv Post.

Contributing: Associated Press