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Russian watchdog places journalist Babchenko on blacklist of terrorists, extremists

He used to be a war correspondent for the Moskovsky Komsomolets and Novaya Gazeta newspapers but moved to Ukraine in 2017

Arkady Babchenko Valentyn Ogirenko/Pool photo via AP

Arkady Babchenko

© Valentyn Ogirenko/Pool photo via AP

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/. Journalist Arkady Babchenko has been placed on Russia’s blacklist of organizations and individuals reportedly involved in extremist and terrorist activities, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service said on Thursday.

Babchenko, a Russian reporter and writer, used to be a war correspondent for the Moskovsky Komsomolets and Novaya Gazeta newspapers but moved to Ukraine in 2017. In 2018, Ukraine’s police reported that he had been killed in the country’s capital of Kiev. However, it turned out later that Babchenko had faked his murder to prevent a real assassination attempt. Babchenko later blamed Russian intelligence agencies for planning to kill him.

Babchenko left Ukraine in November 2019.

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