Russian war reporter Andrei Babitsky died at the age of 57 at his home in Donetsk, in Ukraine's separatist east, local media and Radio Free Europe reported on Friday (April 1st).
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A controversial personality, he was best known as a war reporter for Radio Free Europe during the two wars in Chechnya where he was notably taken prisoner by Russian forces and handed over to the Chechen rebels, in an exchange condemned by the international community.
“
His reporting provoked fierce criticism from the Russian authorities,
” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said in an obituary.
After the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, he firmly supported the cause of the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, broke off his contacts with Radio Free Europe and settled in 2015 in Donetsk, one of the strongholds rebels.
Relationships of trust with rebel leaders
He wrote several articles critical of Kyiv and liberal views.
According to the Oplot (" Bastion
") television channel in
the separatist region of Donetsk, where Andrei Babitsky hosted a program, the journalist "
died last night in his apartment in Donetsk
".
He would have had heart failure, according to local media.
In 1987, he started working for Radio Free Europe, distinguishing himself in particular by his reports on a coup attempt in 1991. In 1994-1996, he covered the first war in Chechnya for Radio Free Europe .
The journalist was reputed to have good contacts with rebel leaders, several of whom trusted the information broadcast by the Russian service of RFE.
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He castigated in his reports the suffering of civilians and the abuses of Russian soldiers in Chechnya, passed over in silence on public television.
In 2000, during the second Chechen war, he was arrested by Russian forces in this Russian republic in the Caucasus for violating accreditation rules.
Soon after, he was exchanged for two Russian soldiers captured by Chechen rebels.
The United States condemned this exchange, which was shown on Russian television, stressing that Andrei Babitsky was not a fighter.
The journalist himself explained that he had agreed to do so to “
help free military prisoners
”.
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