KIEV: “Murdered” anti-Kremlin journalist Arkady Babchenko appeared alive and well at a press conference in Kiev on Wednesday as Ukraine admitted it had faked his death to expose an alleged Russian plot to kill him.

Onlookers gasped and applauded as Babchenko appeared, introduced by the head of Ukraine’s security service, who said the murder had been staged in order to foil an attempt on his life by Moscow.

Less than 24 hours before, Ukraine said the reporter had died from three gunshots to the back in the stairwell of his apartment building in a contract-style killing in a case that provoked an outpouring of grief and a diplomatic spat.

News of the “death” of the prominent Russian war correspondent and former soldier set off a series of recriminations between Kiev and Moscow, and pictures and flowers were laid by mourners at the Russian embassy in Kiev.

Ukrainian officials led by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman accused Russia of being behind the killing of the Kremlin critic, a charge that Moscow batted back.

After the truth of the reported assassination came to light, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it was “great news” that Babchenko was alive. But on Twitter she slammed the “propagandistic effect” of the set-up.

Reporters Without Borders also condemned the faked death. “It is pathetic and regrettable that the Ukrainian police have played with the truth, whatever their motive... for the stunt,” said Christophe Deloire, the head of the Paris-based media watchdog.

And Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov, a former colleague of Babchenko, also questioned the value of the operation. “To me, it’s crossing a line big time. Babchenko is a journalist not a policeman, for Christ sake, and part of our job is trust, whatever Trump & Putin say about fake news,” he wrote on Twitter. “I’m glad he is alive, but he undermined even further the credibility of journalists and the media,” he added.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2018