In Ukraine, Prominent Journalists Targeted By 'Russian Hit List' Question Its Authenticity
By Christopher Miller
KYIV -- The leak of an alleged “Russian hit list” has stirred anxieties and raised more questions about the bizarre Ukrainian staging of journalist Arkady Babchenko’s death after journalists on the list said they doubt its authenticity.
Ukraine is still reeling nearly a week after authorities here faked the contract-style killing of Babchenko, a Russian dissident journalist, as part of a controversial and elaborate ruse they claim was necessary to foil a real Russian assassination plot.
Instead of details in the bizarre case becoming clearer, they have grown murkier by the day, with authorities fingering the director of a Ukrainian arms manufacturer that provides sights to snipers of its armed forces as the organizer who hired a right-wing, anti-Russian, former monk-turned-volunteer soldier to be the shooter.
Both have claimed to have been in league with Ukraine’s intelligence services, something Ukrainian officials first denied, then partly corrected, saying the would-be shooter, Oleksiy Tsimbalyuk, had indeed been working with them. The manufacturer, Borys Herman, was remanded in custody by a Kyiv court on May 31.
The whole affair took a strange new turn on June 4 when a purported “hit list” of 47 people -- mainly journalists and political activists -- that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claims to have discovered during the Babchenko operation was leaked to Strana.ua, an opposition news site, and published online.
SBU spokesperson Olena Hitlianska told Interfax-Ukraine on June 5 that she was not familiar with the Strana.ua list and could not comment on its authenticity.
“The list is a secret of the investigation,” she said.
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OSCE Envoy Warns Ukraine Over Treason Accusations Against Journalists
By RFE/RL
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)'s media freedom representative has expressed concern over an Internet post in which a Ukrainian official suggested that several journalists and other public figures were traitors.
“The publishing of a list, including names of journalists, accusing them of being traitors is unacceptable and dangerous," an OSCE statement on June 5 quoted media freedom envoy Harlem Desir as saying in a letter to the Ukrainian authorities.
This can have serious repercussions for the safety of journalists,” Desir wrote. "I strongly encourage the authorities to intervene and suspend such practices, especially those undertaken by government officials, given the sensitive and difficult environment in Ukraine at the moment.”
The rebuke referred to a Facebook post in which Larysa Sarhan, a spokeswoman for Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko, listed about 25 people whose remarks -- in some cases criticism of the state regarding journalists’ safety and alleged impunity for crimes against the media -- she asserted were treasonous.
Sarhan's post and the OSCE representative's criticism came amid controversy over the faked killing of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko in Kyiv on May 29.
The list Sarhan posted included journalist Miroslava Gongadze, National Union of Journalists Chairman Serhiy Tomilenko, and former Odesa region Governor Mikheil Saakashvili, who is a vocal foe of President Petro Poroshenko's government.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (click to enlarge):
