Ukrainian journalist defends his faked death in face of ‘moralizers’

Anti-Kremlin journalist Arkady Babchenko, whose faked death by Ukrainian authorities stunned the world this week, tells the media he had been preparing to stage his death with secret services for several weeks and dismisses criticism of the misinformation involved in the ruse.

“I wish all these moralizers could be in the same situation — let them show their adherence to the principles of their high morals and die proudly holding their heads high without misleading the media,” he writes on Facebook.

Babchenko’s death was faked by Ukrainian authorities in a reported bid to capture an alleged Russian-hired assassin pursuing him.

Some media commentators agreed that the ruse was a legitimate means for keeping him alive.

“The main thing is that the killing of a journalist was foiled, the organizers are caught and the journalist is alive,” says Russian political commentator Evgeny Roizman.

“Do not love an Arkady that is alive less than a dead one. In a hybrid war there are sometimes hybrid victims,” Russian journalist Boris Grozovsky writes on Facebook.

— AFP