Babchenko Puts Christ to Shame: Returns From the Grave to Condemn Russia to Hell

"I'm still alive, they shouldn't hold their breath!" The problem is: no one cares. But anyway, it's total extravaganza, even for Ukraine. Arkady Babchenko wasn't killed. One can say, he did the impossible: he read his own obituaries, plus he gave a handle for the UN Security Council to talk about him. He hit the headlines all over the world. As a side bonus, he found out what his former neighbors in Moscow think of him.

- He's killed, good riddance!

- Why do you think so?

- Goodbye!

- Because he's a jerk!”

 

But we'll talk about the stormy reaction of the so-called "liberal community" on the turned out fake death a little bit later. In the meantime, what was it all for? It turned out an SBU's feint, allegedly, to prevent a real attempt that was being prepared by you-can-guess whom. Well, unsurprisingly... The day before, Rada's deputy Anton Gerashchenko wrote a post on Facebook about the sinister Russian special service. Today, Babchenko himself, grinning to the cameras, confirmed the version. As they say, this was to be proved. Anything goes when it comes to making up something new about a Moscow trail.

Andrey Grigoriev on a Kiev comedy starring Russophobes.

- Arkady, please.

The press, gathered for an SBU briefing, gasped: Here he is, Arkady Babchenko, safe and sound, smiling to the successful trick.

Arkady Babchenko, journalist: "I'm sorry you had to go through it but we had no other option".

It was just a feint. SBU allegedly found out that an attempt on Babchenko's life was being prepared. The mastermind is one Ukrainian citizen. Here is operational footage of his arrest. A bald man, whose face isn't visible, is being taken away by SBU officers.

Vasiliy Gritsak, SBU Chairman: "Mr. G offered $30,000 as a payment to his friend, a former participant of the anti-terrorist operation, to commit an act of terrorism: a murder of Arkady Babchenko, a Russian citizen".

As a proof, there's more footage. It's so poor in quality, one only can see bundles of money being counted.

Arkady Babchenko: "A month ago, some people came to me, they said that there was a hit order on me. The money had been paid already. As far as I know, it was $40,000. I'm pretty expensive, you know".

The directors of the play, Ukrainian General Procurator’s Office, special service and actor Arkady Babchenko unanimously accused Russia of this failed crime. And here are the grounds: Mr. G had photocopies of the future victim's ID, as they said.

Arkady Babchenko: "They showed my ID, my passport data, my document, my photo, that is only in my passport, where I'm 25 years old, when I got my passport. This photo is in only my passport and only in the Passport Office. It became clear the information is received from Russia. It became clear the information is got, apparently, from government services".

There's plenty of mismatches in this case, which were noticed by attentive viewers.

Mikhail Pogrebinsky, political analyst: "The information's discrepant. His wife said she heard everything from the bathroom, meaning it happened in the flat. Then it was said that he went to buy some bread. He was going out but he got shot in the back for some reasons. But if a killer were waiting for him, he should've shot him in the chest."

If he were killed in the hallway, why does the photo depict wooden floors from the flat? And the neighbors heard no shooting at all.

Ivan Osipovich, neighbor: "I don't know. The elevator is so loud, one can shoot a machine gun, it won't be noticeable".

Arkady Babchenko, a blogger, and a journalist, served in Chechnya, first as a draftee, then as a contract soldier. He worked in different media as a military correspondent. But he became famous for his aggressive anti-Russian rhetoric. After the crash of Tu-154, in which the Alexandrov Ensemble choir and his colleagues died, he wrote, "No regrets." After the tragedy of 2018 Kemerovo fire, he wrote, "Let it be on fire".

Arkady Babchenko: "To my mind, there's no nation or citizens in Russia. Now in Russia... like, there are serfs only, most likely".

Russian citizen Babchenko moved to live in Kiev. He seems a perfect character for such provocations.

Maria Zakharova, MFA Spokeswoman: "It's good that Babchenko is alive, I wish it would happen more often. Too bad the other cases weren't a masquerade. It's obvious, the story has a propaganda component".

The Russian journalist community, which Babchenko hated, judging by his postings in social media, has already buried him and presented condolences to his family.

Pavel Gusev, MK Editor-in-Chief: "It's a provocation against the journalist community, a provocation against Russia, a provocation that will have serious consequences but not for Russia".

It turned out he's just a participant of a great anti-Russian show.

Denis Tokarsky, Journalists Union Secretary: "It's typical large-scale fake news, which was made and spread by journalists and the Ukrainian special services".

This is how veterans of Russian special services evaluated the SBU staged attempt.

Sergey Goncharov, Alpha group veteran: "That was a farce. First of all, it was a farce of the Security Service of Ukraine, which is trying to pass it off as a special operation, though it has nothing in common with special operations, I think".

SBU reports that Mr. G is being interrogated. It means we're about to see the next episode of the Ukrainian show of Arkady Babchenko.

Andrey Grigoriev, Anna Kol, Vesti.

Now as was promised, we'll talk about the reaction. First, on the news that Babchenko is safe and sound. There are dozens of photoshopped jokes. The obvious one: Thank You for Being Alive. There are some more about Kurt Cobain, Victor Tsoy, Elvis Presley and so on. And the dinosaurs extinction is mentioned as well. Also, there are jokes about Ukrainian weirdest reality shows. Someone noticed that over the past few months, there's enough fake trash for a TV-show. The 1st episode: gas attack in Douma, the 2nd one: Skripals, and the 3rd one: Babchenko.

But it's only funny now. But here's something for comparison: Yesterday, journalist Karina Orlova's posting, "You're crums!" It's about those who didn't agree with the so-called "journalist without middlemen". There were as many postings like this, as there are memes. It was enough to falsely "die" for everyone to forget his own texts, those where he practiced his cynicism about the tragedy of the 2018 Kemerovo fire or the crash of Tu-154. Or maybe they agreed with those texts?

Anastasia Efimova will talk on those who buried him.

- Hello, Anastasia.

 

- Hello.

- Why did they grieve, while Babchenko never showed a sign of grief?

- Because grief in time can be very profitable. "I am alive and nothing worse. And here's my Yandex-purse." That's one of the limerick variants on "what the heck was all that?"

Alexander Medinsky, blogger: "He was buried by everyone on Facebook. There's one obituary after another. But he remained alive, a**hole. Here's my Yandex wallet".

The photo's hastily removed from the journalist's house. It was hung yesterday, immortalizing the memory on the innocent victim. Candles are removed from the Moskvoretsky Bridge. Hardly had the murder been announced in Kiev, everyone in Moscow was grieving. The posting on social media is deleted. Instead of the obituaries about what a good fellow he was, there are memes like "A resurrected father is a family in pain".

Andrey Babitsky, journalist: "This embarrassment about his death and resurrection is equally unpleasant for both the people, who thought they had a national hero, fallen on the field of battle with Russia, and he didn't manage to become a national hero, and for those who were irritated by him, because this news on the death and resurrection showed the true properties of the figure".

Ider Muzhdabaev is shocked as well. He was at the high point of his career the day before. He smote his breast in front of the cameras and said, "I'm the next!"

- Could you tell us, who can be in danger as well?

- You want me to point a finger at myself? Who can it be?

But today, Muzhdabaev insistently asked not to call him. He said he wouldn't comment or go on the air.

Or here's the poor deputy, Ilya Ponomaryov. He was given a sign. They said it clearly: "Oppositionists might be being ordered to kill. So be careful."

"I'm under the impression there's a systematic campaign where the orders are placed. Apparently, there's a certain goal why it's happening now".

When it turned out that the SBU is behind the systematic campaign, since they executed the operation of the "living corpse", he didn't admit any mistakes, he just published a photo of the resurrected. Comments didn't share the delight. The photo is poor... as well as the story.

Mikhail Dobkin, Rada's deputy: "This Babchenko story isn't surprising, unfortunately. It stands together with murders and comedies they pull from time to time. It's hard to comment all this freak show they pull from time to time. I feel hurt about what's going on in my country. I hope, it'll be over soon".

Though, one can't see an end to the comedy. Besides, no matter what the plot is, the ending is the same. Babchenko's dead — it's Moscow who's guilty, Babchenko's alive — it's still Russian special services' work. It's a proved Ukrainian formula: whatever happens, just blame your neighbors.

Oleg Sidorov, blogger: "When it turned out he was alive, I immediately said that our country will be to blame. Later, it will turn out that an FSB officer was captured, quite probably with a Russian passport. And of course, all this was done by our president's order".

"Girls were crying, the heart was bleeding and you're saying it's just a comedy!?" This is the main Internet mouthpiece, Bozhena Rynska. But judging by how quick texts about Babchenko was changed by pink interiors photos, she didn't grieve for long, as well as the majority of people who were grieving the day before.

The exception is only the American embassy in Ukraine. It was mentioned there that there was killed "one more critic of the Kremlin." But the diplomats didn't say a thing about his resurrection. Probably, they haven't been told.

- Anastasia Efimova, on how alive Arkady Babchenko was mourned over.

By the way, there's one more detail. This evening, the female employees of one of the news agencies who were ready to mourn actively, were each given a rose from a funeral bouquet gathered for Babchenko. Why let it go to waste?