'We found Russian hit-list of 47 people', Ukraine tells allies

[rooster59]

'We found Russian hit-list of 47 people', Ukraine tells allies

By Matthias Williams and Natalia Zinets

 

Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko (C), who was reported murdered in the Ukrainian capital on May 29, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko (R) and head of the state security service (SBU) Vasily Gritsak attend a news briefing in Kiev, Ukraine May 30, 2018. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

 

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine, seeking to reassure its Western allies after faking the murder of a Russian dissident to thwart what it said was a plot on his life, told them on Friday its ruse led to the discovery of a hit-list of 47 people whom Russia planned to kill abroad.

 

The Kiev authorities drew both praise and consternation this week for staging the fake shooting of Arkady Babchenko, an exiled journalist, which they said was necessary to protect him and dozens of others who were targeted in a genuine Russian plot.

 

Russia has poured scorn on Ukraine's allegations while some organisations and commentators criticized Kiev for the kind of trickery which Ukraine routinely accuses Russia of using.

 

Ukraine's credibility matters as it counts on Western financial support and sanctions on Moscow in its standoff with Russia over the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and a Russian-backed separatist conflict in which more than 10,000 people have been killed.

 

General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, one of the few Ukrainian officials who knew about the ruse in advance, briefed the ambassadors of the United States, the European Union and other countries.

 

In a statement after the meeting, Lutsenko said faking the murder was necessary because it allowed Ukrainian investigators to obtain more information about the list of people targeted and about who had ordered the murder.

 

As a result, "the investigation received a list of 47 (!) people who could be the next victims of terrorists," he wrote on Facebook.

He did not provide any names but said the list included prominent Ukrainian and Russian journalists.

 

The 47 number is higher than the 30 people, including Babchenko, whom Ukraine originally believed were targets.

 

The investigation also gleaned important evidence linking the plot to Russian intelligence services, which would be divulged later, Lutsenko said.

 

STATE PROTECTION

 

Ukrainian officials reported on Tuesday that Babchenko, a Kremlin critic, had been gunned down in his apartment building in Kiev.

Lurid pictures of him lying in a pool of blood were published, and officials suggested Russia was behind the killing, something Moscow flatly denied.

 

A day later, Babchenko appeared in public alive, and Ukrainian state security officials admitted they had faked his death to foil and expose what they described as a Russian plot to assassinate him.

 

That drew criticism from media and commentators abroad who questioned whether the ruse and the false outpouring of grief and finger-pointing at Russia it provoked had undermined credibility in Kiev and handing the Kremlin a propaganda gift.

 

One senior EU country diplomat who attended Friday's meeting said Lutsenko had given a convincing explanation to justify the means Ukraine had employed.

 

"I'm happy, others are happier than before. I'd say it was the right thing to," the diplomat told Reuters, adding that Lutsenko did "acknowledge that the media reaction came as a surprise and that side should have been handled better."

 

Separately two television presenters based in Ukraine, one Russian and one Ukrainian, disclosed publicly that the Ukrainian authorities had shown them evidence of being on Russia's hit list and were now living under state protection.

 

A senior European Union official involved in Ukraine said the staged murder could undermine trust in Kiev if the government did not come forward quickly with evidence of what they claimed and the plot's links to Russia.

 

A marker will be the July 9 EU-Ukraine summit in Brussels, where President Petro Poroshenko will need to show proof, if not before, the official said.

 

"What if they fail to provide evidence? It all depends on how well they follow up," the official said.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-06-02

[dick dasterdly]

I've no idea as to the truth behind all of this, but there can be no doubt (as I said on another thread about something else), that the 'cold war' has started in earnest again ☹️.

 

Quoted in the article:-

"In a statement after the meeting, Lutsenko said faking the murder was necessary because it allowed Ukrainian investigators to obtain more information about the list of people targeted and about who had ordered the murder.

 

As a result, "the investigation received a list of 47 (!) people who could be the next victims of terrorists," he wrote on Facebook.

He did not provide any names but said the list included prominent Ukrainian and Russian journalists."

 

Sounds more than a bit unlikely to me....  But perhaps I'll be proven wrong.

[maximillian]

Ukrainian government and their secret services are the worst liars.

How can anybody believe them ?

(Hello Mr. Morch...)

[epampersonal]

I was reading Arkady Babchenko's public posts on facebook for quite a long time, and his posts had been surprising me with a very profound knowledge of war, survival in the field, expert advice on how to identify flying missiles by their sound and take proper cover, besides, hos writing style and great sense of humor... I was trusting his personal experience as a combatant in two Chechen wars and his professional experience as a war journalist in the Serbian, Georgian-Ossetian, and Ukrainian armed conflicts... Even though i didn't like his habit to ask for donation at the end of his every post, and most of all, his hate to Russia, his calls to crash Russia, inflict strikes of the 'civilized' international community on Russia, turn Russia into a civil war zone 'from one sea all the down to another sea'. It was his hatred to Russia repeatedly expressed over and over again in nearly all his posts, that in the end made me unsubscribe from Babchenko's news feed on facebook. He ended up in the Ukraine, where thousands of other haters give him support and new ideas for this 'sacred' total war on Russia. Including the current fake murder alert. Hundreds of public people in Russia had already issued comments or articles in memoriam of his murder, when suddenly he came out safe and sound with 'revelations' how his joke stopped the whole network of Russian assassins. It reminds an old Thai tale about a shepherd kid who liked joking about a tiger coming to the herd of sheep. After the kid's fake alert on a tiger, everyone ignored the kid's true alert on a real tiger... 

[Bluespunk]

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Ukraine, seeking to reassure its Western allies after faking the murder of a Russian dissident to thwart what it said was a plot on his life, told them on Friday its ruse led to the discovery of a hit-list of 47 people whom Russia planned to kill abroad.

Yeah, right. 

 

Pure BS. 

[impulse]

1 hour ago, dick dasterdly said:

I've no idea as to the truth behind all of this, but there can be no doubt (as I said on another thread about something else), that the 'cold war' has started in earnest again .

 

Quoted in the article:-

"In a statement after the meeting, Lutsenko said faking the murder was necessary because it allowed Ukrainian investigators to obtain more information about the list of people targeted and about who had ordered the murder.

 

As a result, "the investigation received a list of 47 (!) people who could be the next victims of terrorists," he wrote on Facebook.

He did not provide any names but said the list included prominent Ukrainian and Russian journalists."

 

Sounds more than a bit unlikely to me....  But perhaps I'll be proven wrong.

 

Anyone who believes the Cold War really ended (and that the West won) doesn't remember their history.  After 1918, it took Germany about 20 years to re-arm, get their economic ducks in a row and for a strong man to annex some land that he coveted, ultimately leading them back to the battlefield.  And that doesn't even consider a long suffering Asian player with a new and improved "Co-prosperity sphere" thrown into the mix.

 

How long has it been since the USSR "collapsed"?  Probably taking a little longer than 20 years because of the sheer scale of it, but the Cold War never really ended.

 

[maximillian]

22 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Anyone who believes the Cold War really ended (and that the West won) doesn't remember their history.  After 1918, it took Germany about 20 years to re-arm, get their economic ducks in a row and for a strong man to annex some land that he coveted, ultimately leading them back to the battlefield.  And that doesn't even consider a long suffering Asian player with a new and improved "Co-prosperity sphere" thrown into the mix.

 

How long has it been since the USSR "collapsed"?  Probably taking a little longer than 20 years because of the sheer scale of it, but the Cold War never really ended.

 

USSR collapsed end of 1991. Nearly 27 years ago. Warsaw Pact was dissolved, USSR military moved out of Germany. NATO extended towards the East... US military still very present in Germany.

The cold war never ended.