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RFE/RL: Exiled Russian journalist Babchenko says he left Ukraine ‘temporarily’

Published Nov. 5, 2019 at 1:23 pm

Anti-Kremlin journalist Arkady Babchenko addresses a press conference on May 31, 2018 in Kiev during which he dismissed criticism of cooperating with Ukrainian security services in the staging of his death, a day following his shock reappearance after Ukrainian authorities said he had been shot dead.In an operation that blindsided the world's media, Babchenko made a shock reappearance at a press conference in Kiev on May 31, less than 24 hours after the Ukrainian authorities reported he had been shot dead at his home in a contract-style killing blamed on Russia. / AFP PHOTO / GENYA SAVILOV

Photo by AFP

A dissident Russian journalist who once promised facetiously to return to his homeland in a U.S.-made Abrams tank, says he “temporarily” left Ukraine, where he has lived in self-imposed exile since fall 2017.

Arkady Babchenko told RFE/RL via Skype on November 4 that he had left Ukraine for an unidentified country due to anxiety over his safety after the April election of Volodymyr Zelensky as president of Ukraine. He did not say where he was speaking from.