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Arkady Babchenko

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Babchenko in Tskhinvali in 2008
Babchenko in Tskhinvali in 2008
Born(1977-03-18)18 March 1977
Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR
OccupationJournalist
Notable worksOne Soldier's War (2006)

Arkady Arkadyevich Babchenko (Russian: Аркадий Аркадьевич Бабченко; born 18 March 1977) is a Russian journalist and war correspondent.[1][2][3]

Writing in The Guardian, Tibor Fischer said that Babchenko's "piece, "Argun", is right up there with Catch-22 or Michael Herr's Dispatches."[4]

On 29 May 2018, he was reported to have been shot dead in his home in Kiev, Ukraine.[1][5][6] However, the next day, he appeared alive at a press conference with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).[7] According to the SBU the 'murder' had been staged to arrest his assassins, who were operating on orders by Russian security services.[7]

Biography

Babchenko was born in 1977 in Moscow (at the time the capital of the Soviet Union).[8] In 1995, at 18, he was drafted to the Russian army. He served in the troops of communication in the North Caucasus and participated in the First Chechen War[9] and later volunteered for six months during the Second Chechen War. He later recounted his experiences in the Russian army in One Soldier's War (2006).[10]

After leaving the armed forces in 2000, he started working as a war correspondent for Moskovskiy Komsomolets and Zabytyi Polk. [9] Babchenko graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Modern University for the Humanities with a Bachelor of Law degree of international law.[11] He temporarily left journalism and worked as a taxi driver for several years, but in January 2009 started working in Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.[9] As a military correspondent, he followed the South Ossetia war in 2008. Babchenko was a publisher of the magazine Art of War.[11]

Babchenko also founded the project “Journalists Without Middlemen” for crowdfunding his investigative journalism work and wrote several books about his experience in the military, winning multiple literary awards.[9]

In March 2012 a criminal case was initiated against Babchenko for "making public calls for mass riots" because of the publication of a post about the possible tactics of For Fair Elections movement protesters.[11][12]

Babchenko is critical of Vladimir Putin, in particular of Russia's military intervention in Ukraine and Syria.[1][9]

He left Russia in 2017 after receiving death threats following his December 2016 Facebook post about the 2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash.[13][9] Since February 2017, Babchenko and his family lived in Prague (Czech Republic)[nb 1], Israel, and Kyiv (Ukraine).[11] Since October 2017 Babchenko is working for the (Kyiv based) TV channel ATR.[11][9]

Babchenko is married and has a daughter.[15] The couple has six adopted children.[12]

Staged death

On 29 May 2018, Ukrainian media wrote that Babchenko was assassinated as he left his apartment in Kyiv.[16][17][18] In a press statement, the Kiev police department said Babchenko possibly could have been killed as a reprisal for his work as a journalist.[19] Volodymyr Groysman, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, said that Russia was responsible for the assassination.[20] Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service (of Russia), responding, called Groysman's statement "bullshit".[21]

As it became known on May 30 at a press conference by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Babchenko is alive. He collaborated with the SBU for more than a month, conducting a secret operation, which even his wife did not know about.[22] According to the SBU the 'murder' had been staged to expose Russian agents.[7]

Reception

The memoirs in One Soldier's War were first published in the anthology War & Peace: Contemporary Russian Prose (Glas, 2006).[23] In reviewing the book in The Guardian, Tibor Fischer wrote:

"Russian wars, even by the brutal standards of martial conflict, tend towards the especially nasty. War and Peace focuses on the latest conflict in Chechnya and the Caucasus. Perhaps Afghanistan was as nasty as this, but as far as I know, no first-hand coverage has made it into English, probably because even in the Gorbachev era Afghan veterans weren't encouraged to share with the general public. The problem for Putin & co is that the conscripts came back from Grozny and had some outlet for their thoughts.

His piece, "Argun", is right up there with Catch-22 or Michael Herr's Dispatches. He amply demonstrates not only why a bunch of guys with beards and kalashnikovs could humiliate a supposed superpower, but also why the Russians had (and probably have) no chance in the region. Your enemy is as likely to be your officer or fellow conscript as the Chechen beyond the perimeter."[4]

Publications

Publications by Babchenko

  • One Soldier's War. 2006. In Russian.
    • One Soldier's War in Chechnya. London: Portobello, 2007. ISBN 978-1846271052. London: Portobello, 2008. ISBN 978-1846270406. Translated from the Russian by Nick Allen.
    • One Soldier's War. New York: Grove, 2008. ISBN 9780802118608. Reprint edition; New York: Grove, 2009. ISBN 978-0802144034. Translated from the Russian by Nick Allen.

Publications with contributions by Babchenko

  • War & Peace: Contemporary Russian Prose. Glas new Russian writing 40. Moscow: Glas, 2006. Edited by Natasha Perova and Joanne Turnbull. Includes "Argun" by Babchenko. ISBN 9785717200745. An anthology. Translated from Russian.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ According to the Czech Interior Ministry Babchenko had not (there) applied for temporary or permanent residence or asylum in the Czech Republic.[14] A report in the Czech online portal Aktualne had stated that Babchenko had arrived in the Czech Republic in February 2017, but left a little less than six months after he lost the hope of obtaining a residence permit.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c Roth, Andrew (29 May 2018). "Russian journalist and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko shot dead in Kiev". the Guardian. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  2. ^ "Russian journalist and Kremlin critic killed in Kiev". The Independent. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  3. ^ "Russian journalist shot dead in Kiev". BBC News. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2018 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  4. ^ a b Fischer, Tibor (9 December 2006). "Review: Glas 40 - War and Peace". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  5. ^ "Russian journalist and Kremlin critic killed in Kiev". The Independent. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  6. ^ "Russian journalist shot dead in Kiev". BBC News. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2018 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  7. ^ a b c "'Murdered' Russia journalist is alive". BBC News. 30 May 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  8. ^ "Приёмная мать из Москвы годами оформляет документы на детей". ОТР. 10 November 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko is shot and killed in Kiev, Meduza] (29 May 2018)
  10. ^ "Arkady Babchenko talks about life as a soldier in Chechnya". The Guardian. 21 November 2007. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  11. ^ a b c d e Template:Ru icon Babchenko was killed in Kiev: facts from the life of a journalist, Obozrevatel (29 May 2018)
  12. ^ a b Russian journalist Babchenko shot dead in Kyiv: All details, UNIAN (30 May 2018)
  13. ^ Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko shot dead in Kiev, BBC News (29 May 2018)
  14. ^ a b Journalist Babchenko did not apply for residence or asylum - Czech Interior Ministry, Interfax-Ukraine (30 May 2018)
  15. ^ "Про «пятый пункт» и пятую колонну". The New Times. 14 April 2014.
  16. ^ "Российский журналист Аркадий Бабченко убит в Киеве" (in Russian). Euronews. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  17. ^ Evans, Sophie (29 May 2018). "Russian journalist and Putin critic Arkady Babchenko 'is shot dead in Kiev'". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  18. ^ "Russian Journalist Shot and Killed in Ukrainian Capital". The New York Times. 29 May 2018. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 May 2018 – via NYTimes.com.
  19. ^ Meduza
  20. ^ "Премьер-министр Украины: к убийству Бабченко причастна Россия" (in Russian). RL/RFE. 30 May 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  21. ^ "В ФСБ сравнили обвинения в убийстве Бабченко с "делом Скрипаля"" (in Russian). Interfax. 30 May 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  22. ^ "УНН - Українські Національні Новини". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  23. ^ Taplin, Phoebe (31 October 2014). "Glas publishing house is suspending its activity". Retrieved 30 May 2018.
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