Kremlin expects thorough investigation into Russian journalist's murder in Kiev
Xinhua,May 30, 2018 Adjust font size:
MOSCOW, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Kremlin said Wednesday that Moscow expects Ukrainian authorities to thoroughly investigate the murder of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko and punish those responsible.
"We strongly condemn this murder and we hope that a real and not fictitious investigation will identify those who are behind it," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a daily briefing.
He said Ukraine is becoming a "dangerous place for journalists to work in" and called on Ukrainian authorities to take effective measures to rectify the situation.
Babchenko was shot dead on the stairs of his apartment building in Kiev on Tuesday, the Ukrainian National Police's first deputy chief Vyacheslav Abroskin said on Facebook.
He said that policemen and investigators were working on the site of the murder and had already compiled a picture of the suspected killer.
Kiev police chief Andriy Kryschenko told local media that Babchenko's professional activities as a journalist would be examined in the investigation to seek the motive of the murderer.
Babchenko, 41, had worked as a war correspondent for Novaya Gazeta, Moskovsky Komsomolets and several other Moscow-based media and had written a book about his war experiences. He moved from Moscow to Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, in February 2017, citing unspecified threats. In August 2017, Babchenko moved to Kiev.
The journalist is survived by his wife and six adopted children.
In 2016, Pavel Sheremet, a journalist with Ukraine's online investigative newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, was killed by a car bomb in central Kiev.
In 2015, Oles Buzina, editor-in-chief of Ukraine's Segodnya newspaper, was shot dead by two masked gunmen in Kiev. Enditem