Russian Journalist, Alexander RybinDies After Reporting on Corruption

A Russian journalist, Alexander Rybin,  who worked for pro-Kremlin media outlets and left-wing anti-war website Rabkor, was found dead near a motorway in southeastern Russia near the border with Ukraine.

The previous week, he had been reporting from Mariupol. This Ukrainian city has become a key stronghold for Russian forces since they seized control of the country’s easternmost regions 18 months ago.

Rybin had threatened to reveal large-scale corruption by Putin’s forces in occupied Ukraine. Speaking to a live broadcast on Rabkor, he claimed that there was “gigantic money” and “gigantic opportunities for corruption” in Mariupol. He vowed to reveal more details of what he had uncovered in another Rabkor broadcast when he returned to Moscow, but he never made it.

Less than 48 hours after Rybin’s death, Russian investigators announced that “preliminary data” showed he had died from heart problems. However, a statement released by Rabkor suggested that this was not the “true cause of his death” but avoided directly criticising the officials or any mention of corruption.

Mariupol was once home to 400,000 people, but it was subjected to an intense bombing campaign which forced it to submit by the fourth month of the war. It is now estimated that only 100,000 Ukrainians remain in the city, with many living in ruins as so much of it has been razed.

The situation has become a thorn in the side of Putin’s strategy of installing puppet governors to run what he calls “liberated” parts of Ukraine. Putin and his stooges have vowed to “rebuild” the area, but the Red Cross says the state of Mariupol is still “apocalyptic” a year and a half on.

Rybin fought for pro-Putin separatist forces in eastern Ukraine from 2014 to 2015, witnessing a more successful “first draft” of the strategy. He took part in fighting in the city of Luhansk, which led to the broader Donetsk region falling under the control of a Kremlin puppet government and set the stage for its total annexation in 2022. However, he became disillusioned with what Kremlin propagandists called the “Russian spring” and left Luhansk to report from the Middle East and Central Asia.

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