Babchenko’s fake murder in Ukraine part of ‘lamentable campaign targeting Russia’
The faked murder of journalist Arkady Babchenko in Ukraine shows that the Western media gladly embrace any allegations against the Russian government without any evidence to back it up, analysts say.
Journalists have rounded on the Ukrainian authorities for faking the assassination of a Russian opposition journalist Arkady Babchenko in Kiev. International media and security watchdogs have slammed the stunt as deplorable and regrettable.
The staged murder of journalist Arkady Babchenko by the Ukrainian Security Service is distressing. While the reappearance of the reporter may be a great relief, it is deeply regrettable that Ukraine's authorities have played with the truth, no matter their motive.
— RSF in English (@RSF_en) May 30, 2018
Relieved that Arkadiy #Babchenko is alive! 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.
— OSCE media freedom (@OSCE_RFoM) May 30, 2018
Political commentator John Bosnitch told RT that this whole situation is “the end result of the whole fake news trend and we are seeing it pointing directly at Russia. But at Russia as the victim.”
He noted that every time a new development occurs in Ukraine that throws into doubt “the legitimacy of Russians civilians, the Russian military or Russians in general, one has to wonder what will be the next stage?”
“Here we have an obviously faked assassination. Not only a faked assassination but a quick jump to judgment, pointing fingers at Russia and then a scandal becomes a top news story. And then suddenly we find out it is all a fake,” he said.
According to Bosnitch, this is a frozen state of war. He believes that there is a conflict in progress and “we know that the first victim of any war is the truth. I would say that the very first thing an intelligent journalist or intelligent analyst would do is say ‘Let’s wait and investigate.’ And in this case in particular the rush to judgment against Russia would suggest that it was a set-up from start to finish.”
“The Western media has been led up the garden path by the Ukrainian authorities,” political commentator and journalist John Wight argues.
In Wight’s opinion, this faked murder incident suggests that the Ukrainian authorities can never be trusted in future “when they come out with allegations of murder or any kind of crimes being committed with the clear reference of Russian state involvement.”
He also compared Babchenko’s faked murder with the recent poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the UK: “What we will get, is just as we had with Skripal case. We’ll get allegations without substance. And there will be no evidence because it is clear that when it comes to the Russian government, all bets are off in the West and amongst Western allies.”
“The Russian government can be accused of all kinds of crimes without any evidence to back it up. And the Western media will gladly embrace those allegations rather than do as a respectable media should do and question them and hold them up to scrutiny,” he continued.
Wight also pointed out that the timing is key in the Babchenko case. “Just before we start a World Cup in Russia, which is a showcase event for any country, we get a new story which is designed, I would speculate, to discredit Russia in the eyes of the world. This is a very lamentable campaign that is being targeting Russia…”
Independent journalist Luc Rivet described this whole situation as “really pathetic.”
“Babchenko is alive and kicking but what I conclude from this is that he is an agent of the SBU (Ukrainian Secret Service) because they have been preparing this charade…for weeks,” he told RT.
“He added at the press-conference that it was to prevent massive terrorist attacks in Ukraine. Who would believe such crap? Sorry to be so blunt but that is totally impossible to believe.”
Rivet also added that “this guy…is dead – professionally. He will never be trusted as a journalist by anybody because reporters and journalists don’t like to be taken for fools.”
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