Prominent Russian journalist killed in Ukraine
On May 29, Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko was shot dead in Kyiv, where he had moved after leaving Russia.
On the evening of May 29, an unknown person shot the journalist three times in the back as he was returning to his apartment in Nikolsko-Slobodska Street from the shops. His wife was in the bathroom at the time. Hearing the bangs, she came out and found her husband covered in blood. She called an ambulance to collect him, but he died en route to the hospital.
“Arkady Babchenko was shot, at home, in the back. They have taken him to hospital. I’m trying to find which one, I’m going there,” journalist Ayder Muzhdabayev, deputy CEO of the TV channel ATR, wrote on Facebook.
Arkady Babchenko was born in Moscow. In 1995 he was conscripted into the Russian army. Initially he served in North Caucasus, but was later sent to fight in the Czech Republic, where he saw combat action. He was discharged in 1997.
After his service, he received his Bachelor’s degree in international law at the Modern University for the Humanities. Then second Chechen war began, and Babchenko fought as a contract soldier in the Russian Armed Forces, taking part in an “anti-terrorist operation” in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He served as a communications officer, but was later appointed commander of an AGS-17 squad. He was finally discharged in 2000 with the rank of sergeant major.
He began his career in journalism as a war correspondent for the Russian newspaper Moskovskiy Komsomolets, and then became a journalist for the TV program “Forgotten Regiment”. Babchenko wrote for many major Russian news outlets.
Resigning temporarily from journalism, he worked for several years as a taxi driver. Later he was recruited by Novaya Gazeta as a war correspondent. He covered the developments during the armed conflict in South Ossetia in 2008. Some time later he was fired “for disorderliness”, as the journalist himself put it.
Babchenko worked as an opposition journalist, which frequently displeased the Russian government. In March 2012, he was charged with inciting mass unrest in connection with a publication of his on a possible tactic for “pure elections” protesters.
In 2016 there was a major scandal due to ambiguous statements by the journalist concerning the Tu-154 catastrophe, in which 92 people were killed. Babchenko claimed to feel only indifference concerning the deaths of the Alexandrov Ensemble members who were flying to Syria to perform a concert. After this, Russian MP Vitaly Milonov urged the government to press charges against the journalist and revoke his Russian citizenship.
Several months later, Babchenko publicly admitted that he had received threats. This led him to decide to leave Russia. Initially he lived in Prague, but later relocated to Kyiv due to visa difficulties. In Ukraine he led the program “Prime: Babchenko” on the ATR TV channel. In his television broadcasts he frequently condemned the actions of the Russian government, especially Vladimir Putin, fervently criticizing his actions in Russia and abroad.