YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE!
Spies fake journo death to outwit Russkis
SPIES faked a Russian journalist’s death in a James Bond-style plot.
Arkady Babchenko caused a sensation by turning up alive yesterday – but faced awkward questions from his wife.
A VLADIMIR Putin critic thought to have been murdered by the Kremlin turned up at a press conference and apologised to his wife.
Journalist Arkady Babchenko was reportedly gunned down at his flat by an assassin in a statebacked hit.
But he had faked his death as part of a Ukranian ploy to smoke out his Russian hired hitmen.
The dad of six’s wife Olechka found him outside their apartment building in Kiev, Ukraine, “bleeding” from what she thought were gunshot wounds to his back.
She was told he died in an ambulance.
But during a televised briefing in Kiev yesterday, a tearful Mr Babchenko said: “Apologies to my wife, Olechka.
“I’m sorry, but there were no other options.
“The operation was being prepared for two months.
“As the result of the operation, a man is taken, he is in custody.”
Urkaine said both the assassin and
Sorry I didn’t tell the missus
“the organiser of the murder were detained”.
Russian-born Mr Babchenko, 41, whose opposition to Mr Putin saw him exiled in Ukraine, was forbidden from telling his family about the hoax. He added: “I want to say sorry for what you felt.”
The assassin, known only as “G”, is said to have received more than £30,000 to kill Mr Babchenko, a staunch critic of Russian President Mr Putin. Ukrainian security officials said the hitman had been in the process of buying a vast arsenal of automatic weapons and ammo when he was seized.
Mr Babchenko’s presumed murder fooled millions. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tweeted: “Appalled to see another vocal Russian journalist, Arkady Babchenko, murdered. My thoughts are with his wife and young daughter.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier said he was sorry to hear of the death but denied any link to Russia.