Babchenko is alive and participated in sting operation, Ukraine officials reveal

The Security Service
of Ukraine (SBU) revealed at a May 30 press conference that Arkady Babchenko,
the Russian dissident journalist reported to have been shot and killed in Kyiv,
is in fact alive and played a role in a sting operation to expose and arrest
those planning his murder. As a result of Babchenko’s cooperation, the SBU
operation was able to establish evidence that Russian intelligence services
ordered Babchenko’s murder as part of its campaign to eliminate political
opponents and destabilize the political situation in Ukraine, SBU Head Vasyl
Hrytsak told reporters. He said recordings of the Russian officials ordering
the murder referred to the need to kill at least 30 people in Ukraine.

In the Babchenko
murder plot, Russian officials paid a Ukrainian intermediary to hire
Babchenko’s hitman, also a Ukrainian citizen who cooperated with the sting.
Hrytsak presented video of the intermediary – who reportedly received USD
10,000 – being arrested after making an advance on the hitman’s total payment
of USD 30,000. The intermediary also had the task from Russia of buying and
accumulating an armaments cache in central Ukraine that included 300
Kalashnikov rifles.

Though Babchenko
appeared at the press conference to confirm his being alive, few details were
revealed as to how the sting operation was conducted and why it was necessary
for the SBU to deceive the public in order for the operation to be successful.
“I don’t know what to say. There were no options here,” Babchenko said, stating
that he learned of the plan for murder a month ago from the SBU and he had no
choice but to stage his murder as part of the operation. In response to the
claims that its intelligence services planned assassinations of political
opponents in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry referred to the events as a
provocation and “a Russophobic lie.”

Numerous Western
governments and organizations unanimously expressed their relief that Babchenko
is alive, while at the same time criticizing the SBU for deceiving the public.
“Relieved that Arkadiy Babchenko is alive!,” tweeted Harlem Desir, the OSCE
representative on freedom of the media. “I deplore the decision to spread false
information on the life of a journalist. It is the duty of the state to provide
correct information to the public.”

Zenon Zawada: Without knowing why the SBU found it
necessary to deceive the public, it’s hard to make an assessment of these
strange events. Needless to say, it’s rather rare for a nation’s intelligence
service to go to such lengths to apprehend a criminal, and for good reason. Michael
Carpenter, a former Pentagon official, pointed out that this operation is
likely to undermine public trust in the Poroshenko administration. The next
time a journalist is harmed, the public will then question whether it’s for
real. And faced with daily information assaults from the Russian government,
this incident makes it harder for the public to trust the Ukrainian
government’s version of events.

Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko published a column this morning
asserting that the sting operation proves how effective the Ukrainian
government is in preventing terrorist acts. Another state spokesman went on
television last night to highlight that the nation’s law enforcement prevented
more than 300 terrorist acts from being committed since the start of the Donbas
war. Yet if law enforcement has to go to such extremes to avert terrorist acts,
then their effectiveness is subject to questioning. After all, this type of
sting operation can’t be repeated lest the government wants to further decimate
the public’s trust. The Ukrainian government is playing with fire with such
stunts.