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Assignment: The Life, Death and Life of Arkady Babchenko

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The Life, Death and Life of Arkady Babchenko

26/07/2018 GMT

BBC World Service - Assignment, The Life, Death and Life of Arkady Babchenko

The resurrection of a murdered Russian journalist and critic of the Kremlin in Kiev

The bizarre resurrection of  a murdered Russian journalist in Kiev. The BBC's Ukraine  correspondent Jonah Fisher investigates..

This is the inside story of a murder which fooled the world. When the well-known Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko was shot at his home in the Ukrainian capital Kiev people around the world were horrified. As an image of the journalist’s bullet ridden body appeared on social media, many angrily condemned the targeted killing of yet another opponent of Vladimir Putin.   Babchenko’s  friends and colleagues wrote obituaries, emotional tweets and Facebook posts. But the next day something even more shocking happened – Babchenko turned up – very much alive - at a press conference. The Ukrainian Security Service said the murder was staged as part of a sting operation to catch the person who originally ordered the journalist’s assassination. But what was the reason for this bizarre stunt and has it damaged Ukraine’s credibility?    Jonah Fisher goes behind the scenes in this extraordinary fake news story of life and death - truth and fiction – Russia and Ukraine.

Producer: Lucy Ash

Photo Credit: Genya Savilovgenya/Getty Images

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