Arkady Babchenko

Some Lesser Known Facts About Arkady Babchenko

• Does Arkady Babchenko Smoke?: Not Known

• Does Arkady Babchenko Drink Alcohol?: Not Known

• At the age of 18, he was selected to the Russian army and he served in the troops of communication in the North Caucasus.

• He also participated in the First Chechen War and has also volunteered for six months during the Second Chechen War.

• Arkady has penned down his experiences in the Russian army in his memoirs- One Soldier’s War.

• He left armed forces in 2000 and then started working for Moskovskiy Komsomolets and Zabytyi Polk as a war correspondent.

• He took a hiatus from journalism and worked as a taxi driver for several years.

• Arkady was also the part of 2008 South Ossetia war.

• He got married to Olechka Babchenko and the couple is blessed with one daughter. It’s also been reported that the couple has six adopted children too.

• In January 2009, he joined Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper. He was also the publisher of the magazine titled “Art of War.”

• He got various literary awards for his notable work on the project “Journalists Without Middlemen.”

• He has also worked with Mother’s Right Foundation Human rights Russian NGO.

• Arkady left Russia in February 2017 after he received death threats through phone, email and social media. He also told the media that his home address was posted publicly and he was given threats openly that he would be killed.

• He and his family first moved to the Czech Republic and then to Israel and finally settled down in Kiev.

• In October 2017, Arkady joined ATR, a Kyiv based TV channel as a presenter.

• According to some police reports, he was shot three times at his back near the entrance to his apartment. His wife later reported that she was in the washroom when all the incident happened and after coming out, she found him in a pool of blood. She took him to the hospital and on an en route to the hospital, he was found dead.

• On 30 May 2018, Arkady shockingly appeared at a police press conference held by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) at Ukraine where the investigation was being held regarding his murder and it was disclosed by the reporter’s agency that his death was pre-planned to catch people who were trying to kill him. He apologized to his wife and close friends for troubling them and keeping a secret from them from last two months. Here’s a video in which Arkady suddenly appeared in the conference: