Babchenko-Gate: Kiev Scam Brings UNSC to Brink of War Over Fake Murder of Journalist
The UN Security Council commented on the murder of a journalist in Kiev. Russia's Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya suggested that the Ukrainian authorities might blame Russia for Babchenko's death.
Valentin Bogdanov has the details from the Security Council meeting.
The Security Council is fed up with Kiev's never-ending complaints. Ukraine hadn't been mentioned there for more than a year, and if it weren't for the Polish presidency (Warsaw requested the current meeting), Minister Klimkin wouldn't have flown across the ocean. However, the unpredictable and dangerous Ukrainian reality changed the previously drafted scenario.
Minutes before the meeting of the Security Council, urgent news came from Kiev. Journalist Arkady Babchenko was shot dead in his apartment. He's one of several journalists that were killed in Ukraine in recent years.
Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN: "Those journalists that have their own undesirable opinion, not even a pro-Russian or a radical one, but simply an opposing one, are being purged and locked up in Ukraine. Under what grounds? Right, because they are "agents of the Kremlin." Independent and opposition journalists are being murdered and nobody investigates their deaths. Today, journalist Arkady Babchenko, a Russian citizen, was murdered in Kiev. It happened several hours ago. We can assume that the Ukrainian authorities are going to blame Russia for that. Similar cases happened before. Other journalists are fleeing Ukraine out of fear of prosecution, and those that decide to stay get arrested. That's what happened to Kirill Vyshinsky, a Ukrainian citizen and the head of RIA Ukraine".
That's about it. The SBU hadn't yet commented on the incident when the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry (not the MIA) already started its insinuations.
Pavel Klimkin, Foreign Minister (Ukraine): "The police have just started the investigation and it's too soon to place the blame. But if we recall similar cases, we have ground to assume that Russia is using various strategies to destabilize Ukraine, including terrorist attacks, sabotage, and political murders".
Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN: "The Ukrainian Minister has already hinted who might be behind the murder of the unfortunate Babchenko. I believe that Ukrainian justice, whose worth we all know, will likely find a Russian trail, as we promised you today".
In this regard, Kiev has an example to learn from. The West calls the tune. The crash of the Malaysian Boeing in Donbass isn't directly related to the political situation in Ukraine. In that case, the Security Council adopted a separate resolution. However, Nikki Haley couldn't help but recall the accusations recently voiced by the investigation group.
Nikki Haley, US Permanent Representative to the UN: "We welcome the information submitted by the joint investigation group last week. We support Australia and the Netherlands in their appeal to Russia to admit its guilt and cooperate with us in order to punish those responsible for the crash of MH17".
Haley preferred to omit the fact that Russia helped to create the resolution which requires that an independent and unbiased investigation be conducted before laying blame. For example, two years ago, Russia sent the investigators some primary radar data from the crash site. There's no way to forge it.
Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN: "The data rules out the possibility that the missile that hit the Boeing was launched from militia-controlled territory, contrary to the investigations' conclusion. Nevertheless, our data isn't even attached to the case. I'll ask you directly: Why? And how shall we treat the fact that the Netherlands refused to asses the key circumstance of the tragedy: the fact that the Ukrainian authorities did not close airspace over the conflict zone? Or why isn't radar data from Kiev and the actions of Ukrainian air traffic controllers mentioned in the case? I remind you that the United States has not yet provided satellite images that they claimed to have right after the crash. Instead of taking concrete, incontestable facts into account, the SSG is manipulating data from social networks; data that can't be verified. Moreover, before the investigation was over, they launched a chain reaction of accusations against us similar to the British "highly likely".
The only way to resolve the Ukrainian crisis is the Minsk Agreements. Nebenzya refreshed the memory of his counterparts by elaborating every point of the document. He also proposed adopting a statement in support of the peace process.
Valentin Bogdanov and Ivan Utkin Vesti, New York.