'Murdered' Journalist Is Alive and Well
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
> He apparently did not tell his wife that the murder had been staged. "Special apologies to my wife," he said at the press conference."
He'll be in the doghouse for a while after this.
> 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".
I think context is probably very important, but I don't think context alone can diminish the effect this kind of lie can have. You just kind of leave someone in ontological shock about the foundation of one of their most important relationships.
https://twitter.com/polina__ivanova/status/10018358919487078...
#Babchenko: "Special apologies to my wife. Olechka, I am sorry, but there were no options here. The operation took two months to prepare. I was told a month ago. As a result of the operation, one person has been captured, he is being held."
https://twitter.com/polina__ivanova/status/10018329989946613...
Police said that they had made one arrest in connection with the alleged assassination plot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matei_Pavel_Haiducu
A Romanian spy was reluctant to conduct an assassination of two dissidents living in France. So he contacted the french secret services (DST). And fake attempts/executions were staged.
The one that was "killed" officially stayed low for ~3 months, which enabled the (ex-)spy to fetch his brother in Bucharest and defect to the West.
(video in french: http://lesoubliesdelhistoire.fr/video/200964054)
Edit: removed unnecessary language sympathetic to one side or another
The would-be assassin was an undercover Ukrainian agent, and he’ll be one of the key witnesses in the criminal case that will follow.
Locking the organizer up will save more than one man’s life, both directly (other people who’s killing he might have organized in the future) and indirectly (because of the media coverage of this case, the price tag might raise a lot).
I’m not a lawyer but that looks like an indirect evidence pointing towards Russian government.
I cant imagine what it's like to have an entire nation after you. I'd say the plot uncovered was put into play maybe Russia puts out a general call to any hitman to kill a target for them so Russia may not know who it was that did it.
But now I think we may be back to square one his wife may actually want to kill him now.
This one's my favorite, I think: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/11/utah-woman-found-guilty...
While in jail for hiring a hitman, she attempted to put out a hit on the fake hitman. After that failed, she tried to take out a witness and an attorney!
1- The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement it was happy that Mr Babchenko was alive. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the staged murder was done for "propagandistic effect", Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
Russia seems to be saying that they staged it as propaganda and there was no real attempt on his life.
>That drew criticism from media and commentators abroad who questioned whether the ruse and the false outpouring of grief and finger-pointing at Russia it provoked had undermined credibility in Kiev and handing the Kremlin a propaganda gift.
>One senior EU country diplomat who attended Friday’s meeting said Lutsenko had given a convincing explanation to justify the means Ukraine had employed.
>“I’m happy, others are happier than before. I’d say it was the right thing to,” the diplomat told Reuters, adding that Lutsenko did “acknowledge that the media reaction came as a surprise and that side should have been handled better.”
>Separately two television presenters based in Ukraine, one Russian and one Ukrainian, disclosed publicly that the Ukrainian authorities had shown them evidence of being on Russia’s hit list and were now living under state protection.
>A senior European Union official involved in Ukraine said the staged murder could undermine trust in Kiev if the government did not come forward quickly with evidence of what they claimed and the plot’s links to Russia.
source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-russia-journalist...
Because the invasion of Ukraine is pretty under-reported. This recent story may cause news agencies to pass on reporting on the issue in the future, as now there is a clear example of the authorities passing false narratives. This diminishes what should be the goal, spreading the news of Russia invading Eastern Europe and killing 10,000+ Eastern Europeans.
> the only thing fake was him actually dying
Yes, but the general headline of the previous stories was "Reporter murdered"
Take the example of having posted this story in a news forum, like Reddit, and getting lots of upvotes. A few days later it turns out the crux of the story "Reporter murdered" is actually not true. How likely are you going to post stories involving this narrative in the future? Don't you have a bitter taste in your mouth from the whole thing? I would imagine that reporters who's names are on the original "Reporter murdered" stories may also have a bitter taste in their mouth.
Did they arrest someone who was hired to kill him? What was the point of this?
Was he not actually shot? Was he even shot at? Him being found by his wife dead and bloody, did this happen?
I don't understand this at all.
Then it wasn't really going to fool Russia, they hadn't attacked him. Was it an attempt to influence Western countries?
That's not supported by what we know.
It's not uncommon for people to get caught hiring hitmen that turn out to be undercover police. That may be what happened here.
edit: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44307611 states:
> Mr Hrytsak alleged that Russian security services had recruited a Ukrainian citizen to find hitmen within the country. He said the citizen approached several acquaintances, including war veterans, offering $30,000 for the contract killing, one of whom revealed the plot to the security services.
Blanks, blood squib, cooperative ambulance crew, report back with "mission successful" and see what sort of activity happens at the Russian embassy.
It's not clear why they faked his death, but apparently it led to something happening.
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/30/russian-journa...
They have arrested someone who paid to kill the journalist.
The “assassin” was an undercover Ukrainian agent, and he’s gonna be one of the key witnesses in the criminal case that will follow.
Or if the disposable and deniable hitman was employed, and the agent himself was out of their reach for whatever reason. They may have wanted to intercept him, and have their own man to reach Russian agent once the execution order was "fulfilled"
So they blamed Russia for a staged murder, creating a very serious and very public international incident, as part of an investigation? How is no one raising the possibility that this was done to frame Russia, and that now they have changed their mind for whatever reason (perhaps fear of the ruse being discovered). Surely that’s worth considering.
It’s exactly what we would be speculating if it was done by a regime considered hostile to the West, instead of one considered friendly.
I have no reason to believe any particular theory of what actually happened and why, but surely, the Ukrainian government’s explanation should not just be parroted uncritically by the press and commentators.
> The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that the staged murder was done for "propagandistic effect"
This doesn't make sense, as Russia is already well-known for killing journalists and no one is doing anything about it. What would be the point of adding a fake body to the pile? What do you think they planned to do with the still living journalist? This idea just doesn't make sense.
Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, sent mercenaries to Donbass and Syria, bombed hospitals in Syria, shot down MH-17, killed dozen of journalists domestically... but you've worried that one murder accusation is a 'very serious' incident?
For the record, I am concerned about those actions by Russia. I think it’s downright awful what they’ve done to the Ukraine.
Edit: I shouldn't have commented as I didn't add to the conversation. From the guidelines:
Please don't impute astroturfing or shillage. That degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about it, email us and we'll look at the data.
I'll shut up now.
The fact that this happened is pretty amazing.
edit: there's some confusion over my statement "this isn't on the mainstream media". I mean that this isn't the mainstream media's fault.
NY Times yesterday: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/world/europe/russian-jour... NY Times today: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/world/europe/arkady-babch...
Well, if they are pushing government propaganda, as media often does (it has to due to manufactured consent, governments won't allow it any other way). Otherwise they should never report anything officials claim without a lot of criticism and skepticism.
This is blatantly false. It was reported on the BBC and the New York Times, two of the world's biggest mainstream newspapers
That's a pretty low threshold.
But if this was a sting, it's not a good move by Ukraine/Kiev. It's just going to help future disinformation by the Putin regime. I wonder what their intended goal was?
>John Schindler @20committee
Exactly.
Incredibly stupid move by Kyiv.
Lots of ways to deter Kremlin wetwork without playing Western media for idiots.
>Steven Sullivan @compliancedivis
Right. The next time the Kremlin orders someone's ticket punched they're going to claim they're not really dead.
https://twitter.com/20committee/status/1001834917054042112 (John Schindler: ex-NSA, deep knowledge of Western intel, has had some scandals but is a reliable source and has editorial indep at his current pub.)
Right, like Kremlin never made claims like this before. i.e., https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/russian...