Andrei Babitsky

At that time I felt for the Chechens, because I thought that if these people want to live by their own traditions and move away from Russia then they should be able to. ... It’s the same here. I think Russia is playing a significant role here, but the reasons are not to be found in Russia, they are internal. This is a civil war, where the interests of two parts of Ukraine that consider themselves linked to two cultural traditions are clashing with each other.

Babitsky was living in Prague, Czech Republic where RFERL headquarters were located when in 2014 he fell out with Radio Liberty over his advocating the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. He voiced the opinion that it was Russia's "undeniable right to stand up for its (Crimea's) inhabitants" and in September of the same year he was dismissed from the radio. Speaking on the war in eastern Ukraine, Babitsky said that:

On June 23, 2005, Babitsky managed to interview Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. The interview was first broadcast on ABC on July 28 and incurred the wrath of Russian officials.

On September 2, 2004, Babitsky was detained by Russian Special Services at Vnukovo airport whilst attempting to get to North Ossetia to report on the school hostage crisis.

At the outset of the Russian assault on the Chechen capital Grozny in January 2000 the Russian government announced that there were no civilians left in the city. Babitsky then managed to get into the besieged Grozny and reported under heavy bombing that this was not the case and that civilians did remain in the city. After his last phone contact on January 15, he disappeared. The Russian officials at first denied that they knew anything about his whereabouts. However, it was leaked to Alexander Yevtushenko, friend of Babitsky and war reporter for Komsomolskaya Pravda, that on January 16 Babitsky had been detained while trying to leave Grozny and since then had been held in the Chernokozovo prison camp by the Russian forces. On January 28, the authorities admitted to having him in custody since January 23. As Babitsky's family, friends and colleagues voiced fears for his life and the scandal unfolded, after a personal inquiry by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who was visiting Moscow, Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov on February 2 pledged to bring Babitsky to Moscow and release him. However, instead of his release, on February 4 the Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky announced that on February 3 Babitsky had been handed over to Chechen warlords in exchange for several Russian soldiers held captive by them. "From now on, all federal authorities bear no responsibility for the reporter's fate", Yastrzhembsky added. Chechen rebel authorities, including president Aslan Maskhadov, denied ever having been involved in any such swap. The situation was perceived as one of the first signs of the shrinking tolerance for a free press in Russia under Vladimir Putin, who became acting President of Russia on New Year's Eve. As author Masha Gessen put it, with the story of the prisoner swap, "...Russian troops had treated a journalist--a Russian journalist--as an enemy combatant."

On March 10, 2000, the newspaper Kommersant published an interview with Putin, where he accused Babitsky of treason and collaboration with Chechen warlords and commented:

On February 25, 2000, Babitsky was arrested in Makhachkala. He was tried for carrying a forged passport, which, he said, had been provided by those holding him, ended up fined in October 2000 but was granted amnesty immediately thereafter.

Andrei Maratovich Babitsky (Russian: Андрей Маратович Бабицкий , born September 26, 1964 in Moscow) is a Russian journalist and war reporter, who worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFERL) from 1989 to 2014, covering the 1991 August Coup, Civil War in Tajikistan and, most notably, both the First and Second Chechen Wars from behind Chechen lines. Babitsky's kidnapping by the Russian forces in January–February 2000 during the Second Chechen War attracted attention of international journalists' organisations. His 2005 video interview with Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev had controversy reaction by Russian government, as Basayev was on wanted terrorist list in Russia.