His reporting was somewhat controversial in Russia, as he was often accused of siding with the Chechen rebels. Babitsky once said: One must say that the Chechens cut throats of soldiers not because they are sadists inclined to treat them with brutality, but in order to make the war more convex, visible, vivid, to reach the public and to explain that a war is actually going on, scary and cruel. However, according to
Mario Corti, head of RFE/RL, Russian service, Babitsky has not shied away from reporting Chechen atrocities and was the first Russian journalist to put the blame for the death of the American disaster relief specialist
Fred Cuny on a Chechen warlord. 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 15 January, 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 16 January 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 28 January, the authorities admitted to having him in custody since 23 January. 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 2 February pledged to bring Babitsky to Moscow and release him. However, instead of his release, on 4 February the Kremlin spokesman
Sergei Yastrzhembsky announced that on 3 February 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. 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 10 March 2000, the newspaper
Kommersant published an interview with Putin, where he accused Babitsky of treason and collaboration with Chechen warlords and commented: Here you say that he is a
Russian citizen. Well, one has to obey the law of one's country if one counts on being treated according to the law. On 25 February 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. == Further reporting for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFERL) until 2014 dismissal ==