As dramatic plot-twists go, it was top notch, gasps all round at a press conference about a murder investigation, as the star turns out to be the victim himself, smirking and very much: not dead.
The courageous, controversial and contrarian journalist Arkady Babchenko had not been shot in the back by an assassin, as Ukrainian government officials and gory “leaked” photographs had led everyone to believe.
In fact, he had faked his own death.
Babchenko, one of Russia’s best-known war reporters, wrote about leaving the country because of repeated threats that he and his family would be harmed. Most notably after reporting on the Russian Plane carrying a internationally-known military choir, which crashed into the Black Sea, though it could just as easily have been a reaction built with residual anger from a lengthy career criticizing Moscow, which is understandable on his part given his position and recent conflicts.
So it sent shock waves around the world when he arrived at a news conference to declare that his murder was faked by Ukrainian security services to catch real would-be killers operating on Moscow’s orders, less than 24 hours after he was reported to have been shot dead in Ukraine,
Babchenko fought in Chechnya’s two separatist wars in the 1990s and early 2000s before becoming a journalist who was extremely critical of the Kremlin.
He wrote about the wars in a book published in France titled “La Couleur de la Guerre” (The Colour of War).
Before leaving Moscow he worked for Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta and Echo of Moscow, a radio station covering conflict in eastern Ukraine .
News of the reported death had shocked colleagues and added to tension between Moscow and Kiev, whose ties have been badly damaged, by Russia’s seizure of Crimea and for backing separatist militants in eastern Ukraine.
But this saga was more reminiscent of the ultra-noir comic novellas by Kiev novelist Andrei Kurkov, which often revolve around contract killings, such as one that involves a depressed man who uses a circuitous route to order his own assassination.
Although this story for all its absurdity, is clearly no laughing matter:
Babchenko really did flee Russia in fear, and there may well have been a genuine assassination plot, but the question is whether Ukrainian authorities, in preventing a killing (if that is indeed what they have done) did more harm than good.
The whole thing leads some to wonder if there was any less provocative way to achieve the same ends.
Critics say, the”Babchenko Stunt “may end up feeding the Kremlin spin machine.
The next time a Kremlin critic is shot to death, or poisoned, or falls curiously from their balcony to die, the first question is always going to be:
Are they really dead?
“Next time you show me photos from Syria by ‘White Helmets’, I will show photo of ‘dead Arkady Babchenko ‘killed by Putin, wrote one pro-Russian Twitter user, in a small taste of what is surely to come in large quantities.
A different response was , “Of course, that the Kremlin might spin something to its advantage, is hardly a reason to abort a potentially life-saving mission , there’s no doubt we can expect the “Babchenko Defence” to be used as Moscow’s stock response to reports or even photographs of various Russia-linked atrocities for years to come.
More pertinently, the tone of the grand reveal seemed in remarkably poor taste.
Rather than solemnly note the need for such an extraordinary twist of events, Babchenko was wheeled out at the press conference, in a bid to create maximum shock effect, like a magician revelling in the audience’s amazement as his sawn-in-half woman who becomes whole again.
The Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, hailed a “brilliant operation” while the interior ministry advisor Anton Gerashchenko could hardly control his excitement at the cloak-and-dagger plot:,
“Even Sherlock Holmes successfully used the method of faking his own death to effectively investigate difficult and complicated crimes, however painful that may have been for his relatives and for Dr Watson,” he wrote on Facebook.
At Moscow’s House of Journalists, a memorial plaque to Babchenko was hastily taken down; obituaries were taken offline or amended with a rather significant correction.
Chief among them, why was it necessary to go to such extraordinary lengths to expose the plot, who was in on it, and what did Mrs Babchenko really see when she found the bleeding body of her husband?
“I’d like to apologize for everything you’ve had to go through,” he said.
“I’ve been at the funeral of many friends and colleagues, and I know this nauseous feeling.
Sorry for imposing this upon you, but there was no other way.
“Special apologies to my wife for the hell she’s been through these two days,” he added.
“Olya, excuse me, please, but there was no other option.”
Police said they had made two arrests.
Investigators said an intermediary tasked with hiring the gunman and the trigger man were in custody, but have yet to release their names.
The operation began with a tip from an anonymous source who said an unidentified former separatist fighter who fought in eastern Ukraine had been inquiring about buying weapons for a contract assassination in Kiev, which triggered the SBU probe.
Officials said he had been asked to find and hire someone to carry out the contract killing.
The staged scene
During the negotiations, Hrytsak said, the man claimed Russia’s Secret Service offered him $40,000 to organize and carry out the hit.
SBU investigators then recruited Babchenko into the sting operation designed to catch Russian agents in the act of conducting an extrajudicial killing on foreign soil.
Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko (right) meets with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko
It is not clear whether his wife was involved in the sting.
Tuesday’s news of the shooting shocked the Ukrainian capital, prompting Keiv and Moscow officials to blame each for the death Ukrainian Prime Minister, Volodymyr Groysman, said earlier on Wednesday that Babchenko had been killed by the “Russian totalitarian machine” and demanded that “the murderers must be punished”.
It was unclear whether it was all part of the plot to fool the would-be assassins, or whether he was in the dark about the faked death.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said after Babchenko’s reappearance Wednesday that officials in Moscow were glad Babchenko was still alive.
But Zakharova said Ukrainian officials had circulated a false story as “propaganda.”
Now, all will hinge on what hard evidence of the Russian plot Ukraine is able to produce.
“We state that the questions of life and death in Ukraine, as well as the international community’s confidence in Ukraine’s policy, are nothing more than bargaining chips for the anti-Russian hysteria of the Kiev regime,” the statement said.
If Kiev has proof that the would-be assassin’s orders came from Moscow, then the whole episode may go down as an audacious, if controversial, success.
If not, many are likely to agree with the head of Reporters without Borders, Christophe Deloire: “It is pathetic and regrettable,the Ukrainian police have played with the truth, whatever their motive … for the stunt,” he said.
The Russian journalist also hit out at press and others who questioned his journalistic ethics over the staged affair.
Then you can teach me how to protect my family. F—ing smart—s.”
We are relieved that Arkady Babchenko is alive,” said the watchdog’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, Nina Ognianova, in a statement.
“Ukrainian authorities must now disclose what necessitated the extreme measure of staging news of the Russian journalist’s murder.
CPJ is investigating this unprecedented situation and will have no further comment until we have more details.”
“That Babchenko is alive is the best news,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Facebook.
“Wish it was always like that. It’s too bad that in other cases, the masquerade didn’t quite come off.”