Murder of Russian journalist Babchenko was staged

The Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko is alive, his murder was staged in order to detain the organizers of the attempt, the Security Service of Ukraine (known as SBU) has reported.

On May 29, it was reported that Arkady Babchenko, a veteran of two Chechen Wars, was shot dead in Kiev.

Babchenko thanked Ukrainian law enforcers, stressing that they had saved his life.

"As far as I know, this operation was being prepared for two months. A month ago, they explained me the idea," the "Interfax" quotes Arkady as saying.

He has added that an attempt on him was planned before the UEFA Champions League final, held in Kiev a few days ago, and stressed that when he was offered to take part in this special operation, he had no reason to refuse.

According to the SBU, to kill Babchenko, Russian special services recruited a citizen of Ukraine, instructing him for money to find performers of several terror acts with numerous victims. The recruited agent invited his acquaintance, a former participant of the military operation of Ukrainian troops in the country's east, to kill Babchenko for 30,000 US dollars, the SBU's Twitter reports.

Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian President, said earlier that Russia was not involved in this crime.