Well-known Russian journalist and open Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko miraculously “rose from the dead” on Wednesday, May 30th despite being said to have been murdered on Tuesday. Babchenko walked into a press conference in Ukraine. According to a report by Radio Free Europe, Ukrainian Security Chief Vasyl Hrytsak said that Ukrainian intelligence services learned of Moscow had ordered his murder and staged Babchenko’s death in order to catch those involved in the plot. According to Hrytsak, a suspected organizer of the plot to murder Babchenko, identified as a Ukrainian national, was detained by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU).
Babchenko dramatically appeared on live television on May 30th and explained that the operation faking his death had been planned for two months. Ukrainian police had initially reported that Babchenko had been shot in the back in his apartment in Kiev and died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Even his wife did not know the truth until his surprise re-emergence the following day.
Babchenko, a famous critic of the Russian annexation of Crimea and author of reports on Russia supporting the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine, said that he was forced to flee Russia in fear of being found and killed by authorities. In December 2016, he told Radio Free Europe that Russian State Duma Deputy Vitaly Milonov, Federation Council member Frants Klintsevich, and state-owned media sources like Channel One and Life News had launched a propaganda campaign to disgrace his public image. In December, Milonov wrote a Facebook post stating that Babchenko and Bozhena Rynska, who had both made controversial posts on social media regarding the crash of a Russian military plane into the Red Sea, ought to be stripped of their Russian citizenship and exiled without their possessions (a commonly used punishment during the Soviet era). In his report on the crash, Babchenko had vocalized that he had no sympathy for the victims, including Russian journalists from the state-controlled channel NTV, and members of the Russian army choir, who had been headed to Syria to perform for Russian troops.
Statements by Babchenko and Rynska have drawn attention not only from Russian authorities, but from ordinary citizens. For instance, Rynska says she has been the victim of harassment on social media since she posting her comments on Facebook, which have since been deleted, regarding the dead NTV journalists. Russian conservative Maria Katasonova, assistant to Duma Deputy Gennady Fyodorov, formally requested that prosecutors conduct an investigation into Rynska’s post to determine whether a criminal case should be filed as according to Russian law.
The danger to controversial Russian journalists began receiving attention in the 1990s, but quickly became even more evident starting with Anna Politkovskaya‘s murder in Moscow in October 2006. In June 2009, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) launched an investigation as well as an online database documenting over hundreds of deaths and mysterious disappearances of Russian journalists since 1993. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) lists Russia as “the third deadliest country in the world for journalists” since 1991, following only Algeria from 1993-1996 and Iraq since 2003. In 2013, Russia ranked a very low position of 148th out of 179 countries in the Press Freedom Index from Reporters without Borders, signaling that the Kremlin holds a very tight control over mass media.
Babchenko has since apologized for faking his death, particularly to his wife and colleagues. However, he has said that it was a necessary measure to protect his safety. The scheme allowed Ukrainian authorities to identify Kremlin conspirators attempting to take out regime critics seeking refuge in Ukraine. It helped expose the mysteries shrouding contract killings and organized crime activities.
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