Thread: Russian journalist who faked death: I wanted to avoid Skripal’s fate

Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko said he staged his own murder to avoid ending up like former double agent Sergei Skripal, who Western authorities believe was poisoned with a deadly nerve agent by Moscow.


Officials reported on Tuesday night that Babchenko, a Kremlin critic, had been shot to death in his apartment in Kiev, and released photos of him laying in a pool of blood.


Then, on Wednesday, Babchenko appeared alive at a press conference, and Ukrainian security officials revealed that they staged the murder in order to expose a plan to kill Babchenko, which they blamed on Russia.




“My first reaction was: ‘To hell with you, I want to pack a bag and disappear to the North Pole.’ But then I realized, where do you hide? Skripal also tried to hide,” Babchenko said at a press conference on Thursday, according to Reuters, referring to the ex-spy who was poisoned in England.


Skripal was released from hospital earlier this month after being found unconscious along with his daughter, who was also poisoned, in Salisbury in March. Russia has denied involvement in both the nerve agent attack and any potential plot to kill Babchenko.
Babchenko said on the night of the staged murder, a makeup artist made him up to look like a murder victim. He then put on a shirt he was given that had bullet holes in it, and was drenched with pig’s blood.


He pretended to be dead as medical teams, who were also in on the plan, took him to the hospital in an ambulance before pronouncing him dead and admitting him to the morgue.
“Once the gates of the morgue closed behind me, I was resurrected,” Babchenko said.

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Afterwards, he said he washed off the pig’s blood and watched news coverage of “what a great guy I had been.”


Ukrainian authorities have been criticized for spreading false information and tarnishing their own credibility with the plot, which some say the Kremlin could use against them in the future. However, Babchenko said that participating in the ruse was a life-or-death decision.


“Everyone who says this undermines trust in journalists: What would you do in my place, if they came to you and said there is a hit out on you?” Babchenko said.

https://www.politico.eu/article/arka...-skripal-fate/

Maybe it's just me, but if you fake your death so that someone sees no point in trying to kill you, isn't it a bit fucking gormless coming out and admitting that you're still alive?

Everyone who says this undermines trust in journalists

Exactly what you just did, Babychenko- and handed a PR coup to the Kremlin in the process.

The man accused of ordering Arkady Babchenko's murder says he was working for Ukrainian counterintelligence all along


The man charged with trying to organize the murder of the Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko announced in court on Thursday that he was acting as a Ukrainian counterintelligence agent.


German says he started cooperating with Ukrainian counterintelligence after he was approached by an “old acquaintance” living in Moscow who “works at a Putin foundation, organizing unrest in Ukraine.” German says he was told to learn more about the flow of Russian money into Ukraine funding certain politicians and “terrorist groups.”


According to reports in the Ukrainian media, German said his acquaintance in Russia is named either Vyacheslav Pivovarkin or Vyacheslav Pivovarnik. It’s still unclear if German accuses this person of ordering Babchenko’s murder.


The list received from the “Russian source” in this case (naming the 30 people Moscow supposedly wanted dead) was also handed over to Ukrainian counterintelligence, German says. “We knew there would be a false-flag operation. All that was known. But to get the information from the Russian source, we needed to show them something — some proof that we’d done the job — to win their trust,” German said in court.


He also claimed that Ukrainian counterintelligence agents deliberately offered the Babchenko job to the war veteran Alexey Tsymbalyuk, because he is “a priest” and they knew they could count on him not to murder anyone. “They knew perfectly well when they chose him that he would run straight to the National Security Agency and tell them,” German reasoned.


State prosecutor Ruslan Kravchenko said German’s testimony about working with Ukraine's counterintelligence contradicts the case evidence, “where the suspect’s motive is clearly discernible,” he said. Kravchenko also pointed out that the counterintelligence division is part of the National Security Agency, but he promised to review German’s claims.
The court placed German under arrest for two months, while he awaits trial.



WHAT? HUH? HOW?

• Kiev says Russian intelligence tried to kill 30 people in Ukraine, and wow there are a lot of unanswered questions

Ukraine’s National Security Agency claims Boris German tried to hire someone to murder Arkady Babchenko. German was supposedly working on behalf of Russian intelligence to arrange the murders of 30 people, including Babchenko.
On May 29, police in Kiev reported the murder of the Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko. A day later, however, Babchenko appeared at a press conference held by Ukraine’s National Security Service, revealing that his death had been staged to flush out the man allegedly recruited by Russian intelligence to organize his killing.


Ukrainian citizen Alexey Tsymbalyuk says he’s the man who was allegedly hired to kill the Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko. The news agency UNIAN identifies Tsymbalyuk as a veteran of Ukraine’s “Anti-Terrorist Operation,” meaning that he fought against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. According to Ukrainian officials, the man hired to kill Babchenko reported the murder plot to the authorities himself, working with investigators in a special operation to capture the organizer.





https://meduza.io/en/news/2018/05/31...ence-all-along

If you become a counter-counter intelligence agent, and continue to add "counters", does an even number of them cancel them all out ? Or does it cancel any real meaning in the word intelligence ?

Originally Posted by Latindancer

If you become a counter-counter intelligence agent, and continue to add "counters", does an even number of them cancel them all out ? Or does it cancel any real meaning in the word intelligence ?

Makes for a good game of snap

Afterwards, he said he washed off the pig’s blood and watched news coverage of “what a great guy I had been.”

Originally Posted by Latindancer

If you become a counter-counter intelligence agent, and continue to add "counters", does an even number of them cancel them all out ? Or does it cancel any real meaning in the word intelligence ?

Well I suppose it's like being a double agent and then turning against your handler - does that make you a triple agent?

He realised 10 seconds after the photoshoot he was in fact worth more dead than alive.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Maybe it's just me, but if you fake your death so that someone sees no point in trying to kill you, isn't it a bit fucking gormless coming out and admitting that you're still alive?

good point harry, glad you are waking up to reality and start to see what's playing

there is more to the story, I suspect the whole thing was to discredit some Ukrainian special services, so they had to do their coming out before being ridiculed and outed for their fake ops

conspiracy theories are reality, not fictions