
'Murdered' Journalist Is Alive and Well - smarri
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44307611
======
dev_north_east
> "The journalist was reportedly found by his wife bleeding at the entrance to
> his block of flats, shot several times in the back, and died in an
> ambulance.

> 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.

~~~
neic
No. The story says (emphasis mine):

> 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".

~~~
dev_north_east
Ah, they didn't have that bit in the first draft of the story linked here.

------
clarkevans
_#Babchenko said that he had found out about an assassination that was being
planned against him and joined up with Ukrainian security services to catch
the killer, and add that according to their info, Russia ordered the murder_

[https://twitter.com/polina__ivanova/status/10018358919487078...](https://twitter.com/polina__ivanova/status/1001835891948707840)

 _#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...](https://twitter.com/polina__ivanova/status/1001832998994661376)

 _Police said that they had made one arrest in connection with the alleged
assassination plot._

------
kakwa_
A similar thing happened in France in the 80ies:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matei_Pavel_Haiducu](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](http://lesoubliesdelhistoire.fr/video/200964054))

~~~
foota
Somewhat similar situations, but I think in this case it was planned in order
to capture the assassin.

------
tzakrajs
In what way was the murder staging required to save this man's life?

Edit: removed unnecessary language sympathetic to one side or another

~~~
Const-me
As far as I understood (I speak both Ukrainian and Russian languages) it was
necessary to gather solid evidence against the organizer of the crime, who
paid for the assassination of the journalist.

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).

~~~
mhneu
Wow. If this was a sting that implicates Russia in paying for assassinating
the journalist -- wow.

~~~
Const-me
The survived journalist has told to the press the organizer has gave the
“assassin” the journalist’s photo identical to the photo in his Russian
passport.

I’m not a lawyer but that looks like an indirect evidence pointing towards
Russian government.

------
empath75
I'm not sure I understand what happened here.

Did they arrest someone who was hired to kill him? What was the point of this?

~~~
LandR
I don't get it either.

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.

~~~
rohit2412
Yeah, if they had been planning for two months, likely the gun shots were
staged.

Then it wasn't really going to fool Russia, they hadn't attacked him. Was it
an attempt to influence Western countries?

~~~
ceejayoz
> Then it wasn't really going to fool Russia, they hadn't attacked him.

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](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.

~~~
rohit2412
Ahh I see

------
marcoperaza
Edit: To be clear, I am sympathetic to the Ukraine’s position. They are
definitely the good guys in the broader saga, and have suffered greatly due to
Russian wrongdoing, but there is good reason to be more skeptical of their
explanation here. I’m taken aback at how uncritically people are treating it.
This was a staged assassination publicly blamed on another country. That
should turn your bullshit-detector to maximum sensitivity. Original post:

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.

~~~
gandhium
> creating a very serious and very public international incident

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?

~~~
marcoperaza
I’m not expressing concern or lack of concern about anything but the
uncritical acceptance of the explanation for what’s happened here. All of
those things you list, they are very serious. And so is accusing another
sovereign of carrying out a murder. Truth doesn’t have a side, and two
falsehoods don’t make a truth.

For the record, I am concerned about those actions by Russia. I think it’s
downright awful what they’ve done to the Ukraine.

------
josefresco
Mods: I would advise locking this thread, there is _questionable_ activity
here that would seem to indicate a coordinated effort to influence the
discussion and I don't see it veering back into a positive place.

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.

------
josephjrobison
One of the things about mainstream journalism I've noticed in the last few
years is that for the most part is they're generally not completely wrong - at
least about something on this scale. I'm referring to generally free and open
western news organizations. And I know plenty of news organizations can get
stories muted by governments in some cases for national security reasons, but
often not as binary as this.

The fact that this happened is pretty amazing.

~~~
nebulous1
They will report what they're told by the official source, as they did in this
case. This isn't on the mainstream media. I'm not entirely convinced you read
the article!

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.

~~~
volgo
> This isn't on the mainstream media

This is blatantly false. It was reported on the BBC and the New York Times,
two of the world's biggest mainstream newspapers

~~~
nebulous1
Oops, I hadn't even considered "on" being interpreted in that sense! As others
have suggested, I meant "on" in the sense of "blamable on".

------
valeg
A splendid sting operation. Well done, SBU.

------
mhneu
Great that he is alive.

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](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.)

~~~
zzzcpan
Not sure why you are downvoted, John Schindler's opinion does matter here.

------
coding123
I'm sorry but what TV show are we watching right now Alias, Scandal I'm sure
this didn't just REALLY happen.

