Ukraine's Ploy to Save a Russian Journalist by Faking His Death Is Already Backfiring

[fleur-de-lisa]

http://observer.com/2018/05/ukraine-faking-death-of-russian-arkadiy-babchenko-is-backfiring/

The next morning, Arkadiy Babchenko appeared before the cameras, quite alive. In a moment worthy of a reality TV show, Babchenko, flanked by representatives of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), explained that Ukrainian intelligence two months earlier had learned of a Russian plot to murder him. One month before, the SBU informed Babchenko of the threat, which originated with Russian intelligence. In response, they crafted an elaborate deception, including faking Babchenko’s death and fooling the media to expose the Kremlin’s murder conspiracy. In a surreal moment, Babchenko apologized to his wife, who had been left in the dark about the cover story. As SBU chief Vasyl Hrytsak explained, “We have prevented an attempted murder of Babchenko by carrying out a special operation. Thanks to this operation, we were able to foil a cynical plot and document how the Russian security service was planning for this crime.”

While Ukrainian patriots boasted of this cunning covert operation, taking understandable glee in fooling the hated Russians, who still occupy Crimea and a good chunk of eastern Ukraine four years after Putin’s forces invaded their country, this seems like a tactical triumph and strategic setback for Kyiv. It’s certainly commendable to stop Putin’s killers before they strike, and it’s vitally important to expose the Kremlin’s wetwork abroad (as this column has done many times over the last three years).

That said, playing the Western media for fools and taking advantage of their newfound interest in Russian terrorism abroad was terribly short-sighted. Kyiv desperately needs good press. With its military still recovering from two decades of post-Soviet dilapidation, Ukraine is in no position to take back its lost territory from the Russians. Provoking the Kremlin in battle would lead to a debacle like the one that befell Georgia’s reckless leadership in August 2008, when Russian brigades curb-stomped the unready Georgian military.

Time, here, is on Ukraine’s side, especially with Putin’s ugly, corrupt thugocracy seen by the West for what it really is, at long last. Diplomacy, not war, is the eventual way out of this morass. Therefore, cultivating a relationship with Western media constitutes a vital national security interest for Kyiv. To be blunt, how the global media covers stories is every bit as important as what they report. Narratives sometimes matter more than facts—and the narrative that helps Kyiv is that which illustrates Western-leaning Ukraine’s contrasts with unpleasant, dishonest, murderous Russia. For Ukraine, gaining the trust of Western journalists is worth its weight in gold, particularly with their country remaining in a frozen conflict with their much bigger, nuclear-armed neighbor.

[samnsara]

1. I have trouble enough keeping up with my own country