Staging the murder of Arkady Babchenko

The staging of the murder of a journalist took place late in the evening of May 29. After the re-enactment, a photograph appeared on the Internet in which Arkady Babchenko was captured lying face down in a pool of blood. In order to play the most realistic murder, a make-up artist was involved in the operation to stage the murder, before the special operation Babchenko trained to fall ^[8] , and pork blood was used as blood ^[9] . After staging the murder of Arkady Babchenko by ambulance, they took him to the morgue , where he changed clothes and began to watch news about himself ^[10] .

The suspect in organizing the attempt is Boris German, who, according to investigators, turned to a member of the Right Sector , a former participant in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and former hierodeacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow and Kiev Patriarchates Alexei Tsymbalyuk with a proposal to become the executor of the murder of Arkady Babchenko. Alexey Tsymbalyuk informed about the criminal plans of the organizer to the Security Service of Ukraine . Shortly before the assassination attempt, under the control of the SBU, a meeting was organized between the assassination organizer Boris German and the "killer" Alexei Tsymbalyuk, at which the organizer handed over 30 thousand US dollars and weapons for the crime to the performer. ^{[11] [12] [13]}

On May 30, 2018, the alleged organizer of the terrorist attack, Boris German, was detained. The next day, the Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kiev, in open court, elected him a preventive measure in the form of an arrest for two months ^{[14] [15]} . He was charged with several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - part 1 of article 14 for preparing for a crime, part 3 of article 27 for organizing a crime, part 3 of article 258 for preparing a terrorist attack using weapons to intimidate the population, for a terrorist act committed by prior conspiracy with a group of persons which led to the death of a person. Boris German was the only suspect in this case, since Alexey Tsymbalyuk ^{[16] [17]} , who agreed to the role of a killer and became a member of the SBU special operation, is passing as a witness ^[18] .

As the lawyer of the suspect Yevgeny Solodko said at the trial, Boris German is the executive director of the Ukrainian-German joint venture Schmeiser, which is the only non-state enterprise in Ukraine for the production of weapons. According to the lawyer, Boris German is known for his assistance to the Ukrainian army in the form of supplies of optical sights for rifles, the creation and modernization of sniper systems. ^[19] In addition, as the media found out, Boris German, before his arrest for the alleged organization of the murder of Babchenko, was also a defendant in two other criminal cases. In early April 2018, the Kiev-Svyatoshinsky District Court of the Kiev Region chose a preventive measure in the form of a personal obligation for forging documents. Together with him, Antonina Kapilyan, the owner of Schmeiser LLC, is going on the case, where Boris German worked as an executive director at the time of his arrest. In addition, since 2016, the Ukrainian police have been investigating the case of the illegal handling of weapons by Boris German. The case materials indicate that an unidentified person sent parcels to Boris German with objects "similar to cartridges and an optical sight for an easel grenade launcher ." ^[twenty]

At the hearing, suspect Boris German claimed that everything that happened was the result of his cooperation with Ukrainian counterintelligence . According to him, six months before these events, he was approached by his long-time acquaintance, a former citizen of Ukraine who lives in Moscow. However, acquaintances of Vyacheslav Pivovarnik, who were searched for by the Russian media, claim that he is still a citizen of Ukraine ^[21] . According to Boris German, the customer of the murder, Arkady Babchenko, is Vyacheslav Pivovarnik and he works in the “personal fund of Vladimir Putin ” and organizes unrest in Ukraine, is responsible for the attacks in the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine in 2019 . This fact was reported by Boris German to Ukrainian counterintelligence. According to him, his curator in counterintelligence was a certain Dmitry, whose telephone number Boris German at the hearing promised to hand over to the judge and the prosecutor. ^[22] In turn, according to Boris German, Ukraine’s counterintelligence gave him the opportunity to study how weapons are stockpiled and how cash flows come. In order to provide the killer with information about the victim, Boris German, via the WhatsApp messenger, sent Tsymbalyuk a dossier for the entire Babchenko family with his photo from the passport of a Russian citizen and bank account numbers. ^{[22] [23]} Soon Boris German received a list of 30 people from the murder customer who received an order from the named employee of the “personal fund of Vladimir Putin”. It soon became known that 47 people were ^{on the} Babchenko list ^[24] , one third of which are engaged in journalistic activities or are actively posting on Facebook . ^{[25] The} weapons for the commission of the crime, as was later stated at the trial by the terrorist suspects themselves, were provided to him by the Ukrainian counterintelligence ^[20] .

The timing of the investigation was outlined by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko, stating on June 1, 2018 that the investigation of the attempt on Arkady Babchenko will last at least six months. ^[26]

The trial of the attempted assassination of Babchenko was held behind closed doors. Boris German admitted his guilt and made a deal with the investigation, and on August 30, 2018, the Goloseevsky District Court of Kiev sentenced German to 4.5 years in prison. However, this became known only two days later from the words of the head of the SBU Vasily Gritsak ^[27] . The verdict entered into force 30 days later, but the text of the court decision was not published at that time. German's lawyer Evgeny Solodko declined to comment on the verdict, as well as the fact of the existence of a deal with the investigation ^[28] .

On June 1, 2018, it became known that in the hands of the Ukrainian investigation was a list of 47 people who could become the next victims of hired killers. They were mainly Ukrainian journalists and bloggers, as well as Russian journalists who moved to Ukraine, including Matvey Ganapolsky and Yevgeny Kiselyov . As of June 1, seventeen people from this list have already met with representatives of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies; they were all invited to request protection. In addition, all 17 people signed an agreement not to disclose the secrets of the investigation ^[29] .

On May 30, 2018, on her personal page on the Facebook social network , the press secretary of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Larisa Sargan posted a list of 26 journalists and politicians ^{[30] who} criticized law enforcement officers during a special operation with Babchenko, which was called the “list of traitors” in the media ; in some sources it is also called the “list of airborne sicknesses” ^[31] This list included, among others, well-known figures and politicians, former and current at the time of publication of the list, people's deputies of Ukraine: Yulia Tymoshenko ( MP , former Prime Minister of Ukraine ), Victor Chumak (former People’s Deputy), Yegor Sobolev (People’s Deputy), Viktor Baloga , Semyon Semenchenko (People’s Deputy), Igor Lutsenko (People’s Deputy), Anatoly Gritsenko, Valentin Nalyvaichenko (former SBU Chairman and People’s Deputy), Mikhail Saakashvili (b the former president of Georgia and the head of the Odessa region), Andrey Portnov (former adviser to the president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych), Elena Lukash (former people's deputy), Vyacheslav Chechilo, Bogdan Butkevich, Vera Savchenko (sister of the arrested Nadezhda Savchenko ), Viktor Medvedchuk (former head of the presidential administration Ukraine) and others ^[32] .

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Arlem Desir, in a press release dated June 5, 2018 called unacceptable and dangerous the publication of the so-called “traitor list” by the press secretary of Attorney General Larisa Sargan. He emphasized that journalists and the media should be able to openly and freely express their opinions, and the classification of critically minded as traitors puts them at great risk, which should not be allowed ^[33] . In turn, the International Federation of Journalists condemned the campaign to intimidate representatives of the Ukrainian media by officials and demanded that the Ukrainian authorities put an end to any attempts to persecute journalists ^[34] .

The case of staging the murder of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko caused a largely negative reaction in the world media ^[35] , as well as an ambiguous reaction from officials. ^{[36] [37] [38]} A negative reaction followed from a number of international organizations ^[39] .

On June 1, 2018, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko held a two-hour meeting with the G7 diplomats, at which he tried to justify the need to stage the murder of a Russian journalist. At the meeting was the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Hrytsak. As a result of the meeting, it only became known that all participants agreed not to publicize its details. ^[40]

Western Media Reaction

Immediately after the reports of the murder, a reaction from the Western media followed. The British newspaper The Guardian described Arkady Babchenko as a harsh critic of the Russian government, noting his speeches against the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in the South-East of Ukraine .

The American newspaper The New York Times, in its material on the murder, called Arkady Babchenko one of the enemies of Vladimir Putin, who was fatally attacked.

One of the most famous Italian newspapers La Stampa recalled in its material that a conflict broke out between representatives of the Russian authorities and a journalist after Babchenko’s post on Facebook, where he expressed indifference to the plane crash near Sochi , in which A. B Alexandrova . According to the author of the article, in response, Babchenko received threats from some officials and, fearing for his life, fled from Russia. In Ukraine, according to the Italian publication, Arkady Babchenko was the victim of a hateful campaign against his position. ^[44]

In May 2019, on the anniversary of the staging of the murder, Deutsche Welle noted that there was no transparent investigation into the attempt on Babchenko, despite the promises of the head of the SBU and the prosecutor general: the court was closed, and the text of the sentence is still classified. In addition, the request for the early release of the only convict, Boris German, is also being considered behind closed doors ^[45] .

The reaction of international organizations, officials and others

Before the news of the staging

On May 29, 2018, when there were reports of the murder of journalist Arkady Babchenko, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case on the murder of a Russian citizen. В своём заявлении официальный представитель Следственного комитета напомнил о других убитых на Украине в течение нескольких лет граждан России, а именно: о журналисте Павле Шеремете , убитого 20 июля 2016 года в Киеве , и об экс-депутате Государственной думы Денисе Вороненкове , убитого 23 марта 2017 года также в Киеве. В заявлении было подчёркнуто, что Следственный комитет не намерен оставлять без внимания жестокие преступления в отношении граждан России. ^{[46] [47]} Постоянный представитель России в ООН Василий Небензя на проходившем в этот же день заседании Совета Безопасности ООН , заявил о нацеленности властей в Киеве использовать убийство российского журналиста в антироссийских целях, добавив, что украинское следствие и правосудие наверняка «найдёт» там российский след, как это уже происходило не раз до этого. ^[48] Он добавил, что независимых и оппозиционных журналистов на Украине убивают, а преступления не расследуются. Другие журналисты, по его мнению, «убегают из страны» от преследований, а если нет, их арестовывают, как Кирилла Вышинского , украинского гражданина, главу « РИА Новости Украина ». В Министерстве иностранных дел России потребовали от украинских властей приложить все усилия к оперативному расследованию покушения на Аркадия Бабченко. В заявлении российского внешнеполитического ведомства было подчёркнуто, что уровень физического насилия, убийств в отношении работников средств массовой информации на Украине неуклонно растёт, а их расследования не приводили к наказанию преступников. ^[49] В « Новой газете », где Аркадий Бабченко несколько лет работал военным корреспондентом , по словам основателя издания Дмитрия Муратова , как только стало известно об убийстве российского журналиста начали собственное расследование. ^{[50] [46]}

Сразу после известий об убийстве Аркадия Бабченко последовали также заявления украинских официальных лиц. Так, премьер-министр Украины Владимир Гройсман заявил о причастности России к убийству российского журналиста. Украинский премьер-министр на своей странице в Facebook о журналисте написал, что Аркадий рассказывал миру правду о российской агрессии, а российская тоталитарная машина не простила ему честности и принципиальности. В свою очередь министр иностранных дел Украины Павел Климкин прямо на заседании Совета безопасности ООН возложил на Россию ответственность за убийство российского журналиста, заявив, что понимание аналогичных случаев заставляет думать о том, что Россия использует и другие виды тактики для дестабилизации Украины, в частности, по его мнению, проводит теракты, подрывную деятельность и политические убийства. ^[51] А депутат Верховной Рады и член коллегии МВД Украины Антон Геращенко , будучи в курсе проводимой операции по инсценировке убийства Бабченко, заявил, что первой и очевидной версией убийства Аркадия Бабченко является его профессиональная деятельность. По его словам, одной из версий преступления являются действия российских спецслужб по устранению лиц, мешающих и дальше отравлять сознание россиян правдой о том, что на самом деле происходит в России и на Украине. ^{[52] [46]}

Реакция международных организаций на убийство журналиста Аркадия Бабченко в Киеве была сведена к одному призыву — расследовать преступление особенно тщательно. ^[53]

После известий об инсценировке

• Известные случаи инсценировки смерти
• Отравление Сергея и Юлии Скрипаль

• Baunov A.G. Reporters without coast. What will bring Ukraine a special operation with Babchenko (neopr.) . Carnegie.ru (05/31/2018). Date of treatment June 5, 2018.

• The wife of Arkady Babchenko for the first time talks about the attempt, "resurrection" and the family (neopr.) . NEWSru.co.il (July 6, 2018). Date of treatment July 8, 2018.