Ukraine and Russia trade accusations over killing of dissident journalist

[May 30, 2018]  By Matthias Williams and Andrew Osborn

KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukraine and Russia traded accusations on Wednesday after a dissident Russian journalist and Kremlin critic was shot dead in Kiev, in a killing that sent shivers through the journalistic communities in both countries.

Arkady Babchenko, 41, died of his wounds in an ambulance on Tuesday after an unidentified gunman shot him in the back several times as he returned home after buying bread.

Babchenko, a critic of President Vladimir Putin and of Russian policy in Ukraine and Syria, had lived in exile in the Ukrainian capital after receiving threats at home for saying he did not mourn the victims of a Russian defense ministry plane crash in 2016.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said in a social media posting late on Tuesday he was convinced that what he called "the Russian totalitarian machine" had not forgiven Babchenko for what Groysman called his honesty.

The Ukrainian president's office referred reporters on Wednesday to comments by Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, who said it was too early to draw conclusions but that there was "an astounding similarity to the methods Russia uses to provoke political destabilisation".

The Kremlin described such allegations as part of an anti-Russian smear campaign.

"This is the height of cynicism against the backdrop of such a brutal murder, it is anti-Russian bluster instead of talking about the need to conduct a thorough, objective investigation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

FOURTH KILLING

Peskov said Ukraine had become a dangerous country for journalists and press freedom there was under severe pressure.

Babchenko's killing was the fourth of a Kremlin critic in the Ukrainian capital in two years. None of the others, which Kiev has also blamed on Russia, have been solved.

"We think this should attract very tough international reaction which will move the Ukrainian authorities towards active measures to resolve the situation,” said Peskov.

Russian investigators have opened their own investigation into the killing and said they are ready to cooperate with Ukraine.

A man hangs a picture of Russian dissident journalist Arkady Babchenko, who was shot dead in the Ukrainian capital on May 29, on a fence of the Russian embassy in Kiev, Ukraine May 30, 2018. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), also flatly denied any Russian involvement in the killing.

Harlem Desir, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, said he was on his way to Kiev to meet the Babchenko's colleagues on Wednesday as a slew of Western foreign ministers condemned the killing.

"I am outraged by this horrific act," Desir said in an earlier statement.

The European Union, Desir, and the Council of Europe all called on Ukraine to spare no effort in its investigation.

Police in Kiev were preparing to further investigate the scene of the crime on Wednesday by conducting ballistic and forensic examinations and looking at CCTV footage.

Babchenko fought in the Russian army in Chechnya, and then became a war reporter for several Russian newspapers.

He reported on Russia sending private military contractors into Syria and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 in July 2014 over eastern Ukraine, for which investigators last week held the Russian state responsible, something it denies.

On Feb. 27 last year, he wrote on social media that he had left Russia.

One man stuck black and white photos of Babchenko on the fence of the Russian embassy in Kiev, and mourners were expected to gather in Kiev's central Maidan square on Wednesday evening.

(Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth and Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Andrew Roche)

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