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Death of Russian Journalist Faked by Ukraine, Supposedly to Foil Real Assassination Plot

posted by martyb on Thursday May 31 2018, @12:33PM   
from the reports-of-my-death-are-greatly-exagerated dept.

takyon writes:

'Murdered' Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko turns up alive

A Russian journalist and critic of the Kremlin, reported to have been shot dead in Ukraine, showed up alive at a press conference on Wednesday to declare that his murder was faked by Ukrainian security services in an effort to foil an assassination plot against him.

In a stunning development, Arkady Babchenko, 41, walked into a room of journalists in Kiev who had been expecting to get an update on his murder.

He apologized to his wife Olechka -- who on Tuesday was reported to have found him bleeding to death at his apartment -- for the "hell" she had gone through. Ukrainian officials offered a jaw-dropping explanation for his so-called death -- to expose a Russian plot against him.

Script flipped.

Also at BBC.

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Original Submission

• Re:Saved by the evil government Re:Saved by the evil government (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday May 31 2018, @07:33PM (1 child)

  by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday May 31 2018, @07:33PM (#686887) Journal

  but if they've managed to bag some of the assassins through this exercise as well then it could get really interesting.

  They did:

  The head of the Ukrainian Security Service said the suspected organizer of the alleged hit plot was detained Wednesday, suggesting the bogus killing was aimed at flushing him out. [cbsnews.com]

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• Re:Saved by the evil government (Score: 4, Interesting) by zocalo on Thursday May 31 2018, @07:57PM

  by zocalo (302) on Thursday May 31 2018, @07:57PM (#686899)

  Yes, "suspected". The two arrests (the other being the supposed assassin) are covered in TFS, but if it turns out they got the right people (which, I expect, it probably will) and they start talking (which expect they probably will, once suitably "encouraged") then I think we'll see the coverage to pick up again real fast. Also, we'll no doubt get to see Russia's other standard play: the one they use when they get busted, namely make a whole bunch of increasingly implausible claims that they had nothing to do with it. My bet is on them claiming a Ukranian false flag operation to try and get the West involved in the situation in the Crimea and eastern-Ukraine.
  
  It's only a few weeks after a whole bunch of tit-for-tat diplomatic explusions over the attempted murder of the Skripals too, albeit this time not on the soil of a permanent member of the UN Security Council with a lot of political allies. If the Ukrainian's can produce some compelling evidence, or even a confession or two, then it's going to be interesting to see how the international response and media coverage of this attempt compares as well.

  --
  UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!

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