FILE - In this Oct. 2004 file photo reporter Anna Politkovskaya attends a rally against war in Chechnya in downtown Moscow, Russia. Renowned journalist Politkovskaya, 48, was shot to death in the elevator... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Oct. 2004 file photo reporter Anna Politkovskaya attends a rally against war in Chechnya in downtown Moscow, Russia. Renowned journalist Politkovskaya, 48, was shot to death in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building in October 2006. Dozens of journalists have been killed and brutally... (Associated Press) 
 
 MOSCOW (AP) — The brazen killing of exiled Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Tuesday evening has highlighted the dangers of working as a journalist in Russia. 
 
 Dozens of Russian journalists have been killed or brutally beaten in recent years, in clear retribution for their work. In most cases, their attackers walked free. 
 
 Here's a look at some of the high-profile cases: 
 
 ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA 
 
 Anna Politkovskaya was a prominent journalist at the Novaya Gazeta newspaper who was famous for her critical coverage of the war in Chechnya. She was shot dead in her apartment block in 2006. 
 
 Politkovskaya chronicled the killings and torture of civilians by the Russian military. She wrote a book critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his campaign in Chechnya, documenting widespread abuse of civilians by government troops. 
 
 Politkovskaya frequently received threats and was vilified by state media as being unpatriotic. 
 
 Five men were convicted in the killing but the investigators never found those who ordered the murder, and her family blamed the government for its unwillingness to go after the masterminds. 
 
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 MIKHAIL BEKETOV 
 
 Beketov suffered brain damage and lost a leg after a brutal assault in 2008 following his reporting and campaign against a highway project against Moscow. He died five years later. 
 
 Beketov wrote about corruption in Khimki, a town near the $8 billion highway. The founder and editor of a local newspaper, Beketov was among the first to raise the alarm about the destruction of the local forest and suspicions local officials were profiting from the project. 
 
 In November 2008, Beketev was beaten so viciously that he was left unable to speak. He was in coma for several months and spent more than two years in hospitals. His attackers were never found. 
 
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 ANASTASIA BABUROVA 
 
 Freelance journalist Baburova was shot and killed in 2009 on a sidewalk in central Moscow as she attempted to intervene when a human rights lawyer, renowned for his work on abuses in Chechnya was also murdered by a masked gunman. 
 
 Lawyer Stanislav Markelov was shot in the back of the head at close range in broad daylight by a gunman who followed him from a news conference. Baburova, who was walking back with the lawyer from the news conference, was also killed as she attempted to help Markelov. 
 
 Baburova, a freelance journalist in her mid-20s, had worked for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, also Politkovskaya's employer. 
 
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 OLEG KASHIN 
 
 Intrepid reporter Kashin was viciously beaten by two unidentified attackers outside his home in November 2010 and narrowly escaped death. He spent days in an induced coma with a fractured skull, and had one finger partially amputated. He survived and eventually recovered. 
 
 Kashin has written on a wide range of social and political issues, some politically sensitive. Shortly after the attack, Kashin said he suspected then-Pskov governor Andrei Turchak to be behind the attempt on his life as a reaction to a critical post he wrote about him on his blog. 
 
 Russia's then-President Dmitry Medevdev at the time pledged to solve the attack. Kashin was originally full of praise for the investigators who appeared to be trying to find his attackers, but the probe stalled shortly afterward. 
 
 Frustrated with lack of progress in the investigation, Kashin conducted his own probe into the attack and several years later publicly accused Turchak of placing an order to cripple or kill him. Turchak has never been questioned, and has denied the accusations. He currently holds a senior post in the ruling pro-Kremlin party. 
 
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 KHADZHIMURAD KAMALOV 
 
 Kamalov, founder of a newspaper in Russia's North Caucasus critical of authorities, was gunned down outside his office in Makhachkala, capital of the Dagestan region, in December 2011. 
 
 Kamalov's leading independent weekly paper Chernovik has reported extensively on police abuses in the fight against an Islamist insurgency that originated in neighboring Chechnya and has spread across the region. 
 
 In 2008, authorities brought a criminal case against several Chernovik journalists under anti-extremist legislation after they published an interview with a former guerrilla leader. A court acquitted them earlier this year. 
 
 Kamalov's killers were never found. 
 
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 ARKADY BABCHENKO 
 
 Babchenko served in the Russian army and fought during Russia's two wars in Chechnya during the 1990s, first as a conscript, later as a contract soldier. He then became a journalist and worked as a military correspondent for several Russian media outlets. He has written several memoirs of his time as a soldier. 
 
 A scathing critic of the Russian government, Babchenko covered Russia's war with Georgia and the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, blaming Russia for targeting civilians. 
 
 In December 2016, Babchenko outraged many when he wrote in a Facebook post that he wasn't sorry for the military band and state television journalists who died in a plane crash on their way to Russia's military base in Syria. Several Russian lawmakers even called for stripping Babchenko of his citizenship over the comment, and Russian state media called him a traitor. 
 
 Babchenko fled Russia in February 2017, fearing for his life. He moved to Kiev last fall where he worked as a host for the Crimean Tatar TV station, ATR. 
 
 Babchenko was shot dead in Kiev on Tuesday, and was found in his apartment by his wife. ||||| Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, right, and Vasily Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service speaks to the media during a news conference at the Ukrainian Security Service on Wednesday, May... (Associated Press) 
 
 Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, right, and Vasily Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service speaks to the media during a news conference at the Ukrainian Security Service on Wednesday, May 30, 2018. Babchenko turned up at a news conference in the Ukrainian capital Wednesday less than 24 hours... (Associated Press) 
 
 KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian journalist who was reportedly gunned down in Ukraine's capital strolled into a news conference that authorities called Wednesday to discuss the investigation of his death, revealing that the slaying had been staged to foil an alleged Kremlin hit plot. 
 
 "I'm still alive," Arkady Babchenko, 41, told startled fellow reporters at the news conference held less than 24 hours after police reported he had been shot and killed at his Kiev apartment building. 
 
 Ukrainian police said Tuesday that Babchenko, a strong critic of the Kremlin, was shot multiple times in the back Tuesday and found bleeding there by his wife. Authorities said they suspected he was killed because of his work. 
 
 Babchenko apologized to his wife, who he said was not briefed on the scheme in advance, "for the hell she had to go through in the past two days. There was no choice there, either." 
 
 Neither he nor Vasyl Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, provided details of how they staged Babchenko's injuries or made his wife believe he was dead. 
 
 The movie-like twist came as Gritsak convened the news conference to announce that the security agency and the police had solved Babchenko's reported slaying. He then confused everyone there by inviting the supposed slaying into the room. 
 
 To applause and gasps, Babchenko took the floor and apologized to the friends and family who mourned for him and were unaware of the plan. 
 
 "I'm still alive," he said. "I know that sickening feeling when you bury a colleague. I'm sorry you had to go through this but there was no other way." 
 
 Before ushering Babchenko into the room, Gritsak said investigators had identified a Ukrainian citizen who allegedly was paid $40,000 by the Russian security service to organize and carry out the hit. The unidentified Ukrainian man in turn allegedly hired an acquaintance to be the gunman, Gritsak said. 
 
 The man allegedly paid to organize Banchenko's killing was detained Wednesday, he said, showing a video of the arrest. 
 
 Gritsak said killing Babchenko was part of a larger alleged plot by Russian security services. The Ukrainian man was also supposed to procure large quantities of weapons and explosives, including 300 AK-47 rifles and "hundreds of kilos of explosives," to perpetrate acts of terror in Ukraine, he said. 
 
 Babchenko said he was not allowed to go into the details of the sting operation, but said Ukrainian law enforcement had been aware of a contract on his head for two months. He said he was approached by the Ukrainian Security Service, the SBU, a month ago. 
 
 "The important thing is my life has been saved and other, bigger terrorist attacks have been thwarted," he said. 
 
 Babchenko, one of Russia's best-known war reporters, fled the country in February 2017 after receiving death threats. He spoke and wrote about leaving the country because of the threats against him and his family. He said his home address was published online and the threats he received were made by phone, email and social media. 
 
 Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian lawmaker who also moved to Ukraine, said Babchenko continued being threatened after he settled last fall in Kiev, where he worked as a host for the Crimean Tatar TV station. Babchenko did not take the intimidation too seriously, Ponomarev said Wednesday before the fact that the slaying was staged came out. 
 
 Moscow's annexation of Crimea and support for separatist insurgents in eastern Ukraine were topics on which the journalist was scathingly critical of the Kremlin. 
 
 Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko lashed out Wednesday at Ukrainian politicians and civil groups who accused the government following Babchenko's faked assassination of allowing contract killings to happen. 
 
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 Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Ayse Wieting in Istanbul and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report. ||||| In this photo taken on Friday, May 31, 2013, Arkady Babchenko, 41, who had been scathingly critical of the Kremlin in recent years, stands at a police bus during an opposition rally in Moscow, Russia.... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo taken on Friday, May 31, 2013, Arkady Babchenko, 41, who had been scathingly critical of the Kremlin in recent years, stands at a police bus during an opposition rally in Moscow, Russia. Police in the capital of Ukraine say a Russian journalist has been shot and killed at his Kiev apartment.... (Associated Press) 
 
 MOSCOW (AP) — The Latest on the reported slaying in Ukraine of a Russian journalist: (all times local): 
 
 5:25 p.m. 
 
 Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who had been reported shot and killed in the Ukrainian capital Tuesday, has shown up at a news conference very much alive. 
 
 Vasily Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, told a news conference on Wednesday the agency faked Babchenko's death to catch those who were trying to kill him. 
 
 Kiev and national police had said Babchenko, a strong critic of the Kremlin, was shot multiple times in the back at his apartment building and found bleeding by his wife. 
 
 He showed up at Gritsak's new conference on Wednesday and thanked everyone who was mourning his death. 
 
 Babchenko, 41, one of Russia's best-known war reporters, spoke and wrote year about leaving the country because of repeated threats that he and his family would be harmed. 
 
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 2:35 p.m. 
 
 A top lawmaker says Russia is willing to help Ukraine investigate the murder of a Russian journalist. 
 
 Arkady Babchenko, who was scathingly critical of the Kremlin, was gunned down in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on Tuesday. 
 
 Babchenko fled Russia last year, fearing for his life, and settled in Ukraine. He had served in the Russian army during the two wars in Chechnya in 1990s and became one of Russia's best-known war reporters. 
 
 Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, told Russian news agencies Wednesday that Russia would be happy to help with the investigation if Ukrainian authorities requested it. 
 
 Ukrainian authorities have said they think Babchenko was killed because of his work. Several Ukrainian politicians blamed the Kremlin for the killing. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed those comments as cynical.
– On Wednesday morning, the AP referred to it as a "brazen killing." Hours later, it reported a shocker: that Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who was reportedly shot dead in Kiev on Tuesday, is actually alive. He showed up at a news conference in Ukraine. The initial reports into Babchenko's "death" said his wife found him bleeding in their Kiev apartment building with multiple gunshot wounds to the back; police confirmed that he died en route to a hospital. "I'm still alive," he announced instead upon appearing, explaining it was all part of a plot to catch those who allegedly plotted to kill him. How things unfolded: Vasily Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, had organized the news conference under the auspices of revealing updates on the investigation into Babchenko's murder. The AP reports Gritsak then "confused everyone" by inviting Babchenko into the room, and that gasps and applause followed, as well as apologies. "I know that sickening feeling when you bury a colleague. I'm sorry you had to go through this but there was no other way," said the journalist.