Journalist Andrei Babitsky passed away. About his death reported historian Grigory Pernavsky. Andrei Babitsky was 57 years old. He died in his apartment in Donetsk on the night of April 1, reports “Donbass Today”.
The cause of death, time and place of farewell are not reported.
The son of film director Marat Aripov and screenwriter Zoya Babitskaya, Andrei Babitsky graduated from the philological faculty of Moscow State University. In 1987-1989, as an employee of Sergei Grigoryants’ Glasnost magazine, he was repeatedly subjected to administrative arrests for human rights activities. From 1989 to 2014 he worked as a correspondent for Radio Liberty (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation). He worked in hot spots, including during the first and second military campaigns in Chechnya. In January 2000, he was detained by riot police when leaving the besieged Grozny on suspicion of having links with militants. According to Vladimir Rushailo, then Interior Minister of the Russian Federation, photographs of executions of Russian soldiers were confiscated from Mr. Babitsky, as well as a pass signed by field commanders, which gave the right to move freely in the location of gangs.
In February 2000, Andrei Babitsky was exchanged for more than three captured Russian soldiers, after which, a few weeks later, he was detained in Makhachkala with a fake passport, and later fined by the court for using false documents. Mr. Babitsky himself called his arrests and the exchange an operation of the Russian special services. In September 2004, he was detained at the capital’s Vnukovo airport for hooliganism while trying to fly to Beslan. In July 2005, the American television channel ABC aired an interview with the leader of the Chechen militants Shamil Basayev, which Andrey Babitsky took from him, which caused sharp indignation in Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it would not renew the accreditation of the correspondent of the ABC TV channel in Moscow.
It is noteworthy that in 2014 Mr. Babitsky was first temporarily suspended from work at Radio Liberty because of his support for Russia’s position on Crimea, and later fired. He himself explained his dismissal by publishing a video recording of civilians killed by Ukrainian security forces, which was posted on the website of the Moldovan edition of the radio station.
In 2015, he led the launch of a television channel in Donetsk. In recent years, he was the author of the Ukraina.ru publication, collaborated with the Vzglyad online newspaper and the Life portal.