ing, -- welcome to "amanpour on pbs." reality stranger than fiction. a russian journalist who was declared dead turns up hours later alive. i will ask ukraine's prosecutor general the man seen with him here why he staged his murder. and i speak to arkady ostrovsky, the russian editor for at this time. and i'm joined by an activist who said the nicaraguan government is using shoot to kill strategies on protests.

good evening everyone, welcome to the program. i'm christiane amanpour in london. it's a story out of a spy thriller. yesterday brought us the shocking news that a russian journalist. arkady babchenko was assassinated in the lobby of his kiev opportunity, shot in the back, that's what authorities reported. the story sounded all too fam y familiar. we saw a crime scene, his wife was said to have found his body. imagine the shock during a press conference which was called to discuss babchenko's killing. yep, that is the journalist himself, babchenko back from the dead or never really dead at all. the whole thing authorities said was a ruse to root out those who

were in an asis nation attempt against him. the authorities say they have one person in custody. joining me is the prosecutor general who revealed the operation and the living babchenko to the world press today. and here in london is arkady ostrovsky, russian editor for "the economist" and author of "the rise of putin fake news" let me start with you, mr. prosecutor general. really? the whole world is trying to figure out what on earth possessed you to carry out this sting operation, this fake news. >> the ukrainian secret service has documented that russians

have recruited our ukrainian citizens who for this plan of murdering a russian journalist who is now living here in ukraine. but the matter is that the plan also commit a number, not one, but number of terrorist attacks with numerous victims. and that is why it was -- it was decided by our law enforcement bodies that we need to carry out this operation to know more about possible victims and certainly about customer of these possible murders. >> so let me then ask you, mr. prosecutor general -- sir, sorry to interrupt you -- was it worth it? the criticism you're getting, the ridicule that the operation

has come under around the world, was it worth it? did you get a high target? the top rank assassin? who do you have in custody? >> yesterday when we declare the murder we know that arkady babchenko is alive. but we need customer not know. we expected and we received evidence to know about possible new victims and certainly about customer in moscow. for us it was very, very important. >> when you say "customer," you mean the person who organized it. so what have you discovered? who were the people you have in custody? >> the investigation is still going, and i can say now the

investigation action is doing with the person who was an organizer. and certainly we know now some facts about possible customers and all f of them are ukraine for the russian federation. so now it depends on our investigation action who will receive new evidence. and certainly, now if you see, i am speaking only about a russian, but i can't say now, in this moment, personally, who ordered the customer. but the action of the russian federation is very -- very open themselves because from yesterday they are speaking about ukraine as a land who -- or a country who couldn't defend

their citizens and refugees. so i think that now we have some very important evidence to speak about customers. >> so, let me ask you this. you say -- sir, sorry. you say that you feel you proved the ability to defend your sovereignty and to disrupt these kind of plots. but the russian foreign minister said the fact that arkady babchenko is alive is great news. and it was used as propaganda. but worse, a committee to protect journalists said ukrainian authorities must now close what necessitated the extreme measure of staging news of the russian journalist's murder. people are very concerned this is going to enab russia that

everything is fe news, dead journals, fake news, the skripals, fake news. what do you say about that? >> i don't want to comment the lies of russia. but i can say with sure that we have exposed a russian who -- the country who destroyed may 17, malaysia airline with nearly 300 victims on board. there were russians who organized terrorist acts not only against our special forces officers but against our mp. and we have -- >> are you saying -- are you saying russian government operatives or freelancers? are you accusing the russian government or just russians?

>> speaking about may 17th, it is well known that it is a russian military authority -- >> i'm talking about this plot. i'm talking about the babchenko plot. >> in this case, in this babchenko case, now we are on investigation stage. now we're speaking with our citizens who were an organizer of these possible murders. and it depends whose offices he will -- >> stand by mr. prosecutor general, i want to turn to mr. arkady ostrovsky in our studio. you are the russian editor for "the economist." what do you think of this? >> i think it's sad. good news arkady babchenko is alive. but it shows the disdain disregard of truth and reality that we've seen in russia's

actions and it's now more infectious. it's penetrating ukraine as well. this is absurd dy becoming reality maybe. this is not out of a plot of a thriller. this is out of plot of george orwell. you know, staging an operation, declaring somebody is dead who is not, this is fake news. and there's no two ways about it. i'm unconvinced about how a potential assassin would declose something after the authorities declared that he was dead that he wouldn't disclose before. to do this also in a few days after the investigation report from the dutch authorities into the death of 298 people who died for real, totally innocent

victims of mi-17. they wrote an open letter saying we are real. russian is trying to engage in this truth, if you like. and this is an insult to all of those, an insult to journalists trying to see through the fog of war and information. it's an insult to those who are dead and an insult to their relatives. >> i see you're angry. we have a sound bite from arkady babchenko, who's a disdent journalist. he had to flee for his own safety to ukraine. and obviously, presumably, he felt there was some plot against him. this is what he said as sort of an explanation at the press conference today. >> translator: good afternoon. i'll speak in russian, and i'm sorry. firstly i would like to apologize for what you had to go through because i buried friends and colleagues many times. i know it's a sickening feelings

chen you have to bury colleagues. also, i would like to apologize to my wife for the hell she has been through in the last few days. i'm sorry, but there were no other options. i would like to thank the security services of ukraine for saving my life. >> so he's apologizing but he believes this sting operation saved his life and maybe saved other lives. >> i'm more concerned, to be honest, about what it tells us about the state of the ukrainian government and the state of affairs in the ukraine. just as this story is breaking out, another story is breaking out and the prosecutor general, who's been talking here, is supposed to be fighting with corruption. i just learned just before coming to the studio that the finance minister of ukraine, oleksandr danyliuk, who has probably been one man trying to

root out corruption, together with the bureau against corruption. has been pushed into resignation. this is a very bad sign for all the international institutions. in the west it's bad news for ukraine. and frankly, with friends like this you don't need any enemies. >> you heard we now have a scoop on the air, our economist editor says that your finance minister has been forced out. he's doing a forced resignation so to speak, because he feels the anti-corruption effort is being thwarted by the establishme establishment. your reaction? >> speaking about corruption, i can say for you that we have good results of last year. first of all, we have retained to the state budget 1.5 billion

stolen u.s. dollars of the previous regime. $1.5 billion is now awakened for society. the second fact, we recovered 1,700 verdicts about corruption cases. once again, 1,700 verdicts. it's three times more than any year before the revolution. that is why i think that we are going the right road. we need a big -- that is why, a plan of anti-corruption is very usful and important for ukraine. i'm sure the parliament will pass a law, it is their job and they know this exactly. >> all right, prosecutor general, thank you for joining us from kiev.

arkady your reaction to the corruption claim. >> this is not the first one that prosecutor general has faced. he faced one to subvert the action of the ukrainian government to subvert the work of oleksandr danyliuk. >> the finance minister. >> yes. who has been pushed into resignation. this raises concerns about the ukrainian government. >> everybody can read more about the story on line at "the economist." you have a scoop of political propositions and this unbelievable story of the day with the dead and now alive journalist. thank you both for joining us this evening. now we turn to nicaraguan which is looking more like a war zone as the president, daniel ortega,eeks to crush

widespread protes there. you probably remember, ortega, the rebel leader who over threw the dictatorship in 1979 and then fought a war during the reagan years in the '80ss. now after multiple terms as president, discontent has burst into the open after his government cut back social security systems and that sparked a nation-wide uprising last month. amnesty international said the government is using a shoot to kill strategy. today is mother's day in nicaraguan and tens of thousands of people are taking to the streets to remember the sons, brothers, fathers, killed since the violence began. i put all of this to a mother, bianca jagger. she's seen the violence firsthand when students clashed

with armed officers at a university on monday. she joined me from nicaragua's capital. welcome to the program. >> thank you. pleasure to be with you. >> here you are trying to bring attention to the under reported chaos engulfing your country. will you be part of the march held today by the mothers? >> i will be marching with the mothers. since what i'm doing here is to support the students and to call upon daniel ortega and his wife, who is the vice president, to stop the killing of the students, of the youth in this country, and of the civilian population. therefore, i feel it's my duty to be with the mothers and to call -- you know, maybe he will change his mind and stop and release the students who are in prison today. because many of the students

have appear to be torture, to be burned, and to be -- to be killed. and the reports that i -- that i participated yesterday, the report is called "shoot to kill" that is what i've seen while i've been in nicaragua, the police, paramilitary, and the tour bus, and riot police are shooting to kill the students and anyone who opposes them. >> you were at the university earlier this week and the mayhem erupted, and you were quoted as saying they, the security forces, were dressed to look as if they were going to war, except their targets were young, unarmed students. describe your experience as that broke out at the university. >> i was at the university of central america, and across the

street from that university is the engineering -- engineers university. while i was visiting, the dean of that university, who's been persecuted. we began to hear shots and see mortars, we came down, and i went all the way to the area close to the other university where i could see what was happening. and first we saw the paramilitary arrive, and then the population came to support the students who were barricaded inside the engineer university. there was a moment of calm, but then they send on the anti-riot police. but the anti-riot police are coming dressed -- and some of them have ak-47s. some have weapons of war. and they come on as if they're going to war. and the most shocking thing to me when i saw that is they

coming to shoot and to kill the students who are unarmed and who are determined to be fighting a civic, nonviolent revolution in the country. they have no intention to use violence against the ortega regime. why is that happening? for those people who could not understand the difference of having young people who have been the victims, the ones that have been killed so far 85 people have been killed, there's at least 900 or 1,000 who have been wounded. there are many hundreds who have disappeared and who are in jail. and this continues. and it doesn't seem to stop. we need the international community to speak up. we need the leaders from latin america to speak up, we need the secretary of the ois to speak up because he gave the seal of approval to the actions in nicaragua, the elections that

were not real. elections that were stolen from the people in nicaragua. so now it's his turn. what is happening? why is nicaragua not the center of attention? why is it not important that students, kids are being killed. >> we are paying attention to it now. perhaps it was that amount of death that caused the world to focus on it. particularly at the time when the united states has so many struggles with what's happening south of its borders and trying to combat refugees and migrants coming over. you talked about daniel ortega and weeks ago in talks mediated by the catholic church, this is what he said. take a listen. >> translator: we are pained by the death of any human being on this planet when they die violently. of course, the deaths pain us. these kids, youngsters, young people with different political

views because there were kids who opposed the government, critical of the government, well within their rights, and police died ads well. >> what do you make in light of what he said? especially in light of the am necessa nesty reports that they were ordered to shoot to kill? >> he is a liar, he is delusional or doesn't know what he's talking about. he is the chief in charge. he has put himself in the constitution as the person who is in charge of the police, of the army, of everything. he has dismantled all legal institutions. and i today, for mother's day in nicaragua, i call upon daniel ortega and his wife to please stop the killing of our young people. this is unfair.

you are killing innocent civilians who are not fighting with you with weapons like you did. so stop lying. stop misleading the public. you can no longer mislead the people in nicaragua. the sleeping tiger has awakened. >> let me ask you about the specifics. because everybody remembers nicaragua from the '80s, the bad old days if you like. but on the other hand some people thought it was daniel ortega he was doing a good job of fighting a dictatorship. what happened? what went wrong? clearly he's been in power at least the last 11 years that was after another long stint in the late '90s? what are people so angry about? >> you know what i learned in life and why i am a human rights defender and not a politician is because power corrupts.

and absolute power corrupts absolute. i know daniel ortega very well. i know his wife not as well, i fought in the revolution. but this man, when he lost the election, which he was decent and handed over power to mr. chamorro. when he came back to power, it was preverse, it was corrupt. he made deals with the most corrupt members of society in the country. he made deals with the richest, the oligarchs, the private sector, he began to buy political parties, dismantle political parties, dismantle the legal institution and did everything so he had control. he bought all the networks. he has about 12 or 14 networks -- television networks. he had -- we only had one independent paper and one independent radio. he had control of everything.

of the media, of the information. that's why he's not only killed the students, but he kills journalists as well. >> are important sectors of nicaraguan society turning away from ortega or are they still sticking with him? >> well, the most important one, the military, has come out and said they will not shoot at the population -- at the civilian population. that's really important for the time being. then you have, of course, the private sector who feel targeted in a way, feel shamed because of the deals -- some of them with the deals they have with the government. so they have issued a statement to try to distance himself from him. the catholic church today is different. cardinal bravo caved in and campaigned with daniel ortega. but the church today and the

conference of bishops that have been leading in nicaragua are remarkable. and we have a priest that is called silvio rise, that people love in this country and who is really a leader and who stand up and who's been threatened to be killed. >> are you afraid? >> you know, people who say they not afraid, they foolish. i been with you in bosnia, i've been afraid. i know the risks. i am here because i think my voice is important. i am here because i feel about each of these kids as if they were my kids, or maybe my grandchildren, you know. as a mother. and because i can see that little children -- because they are children, some are 15, have been killed. and that they are prepared to be killed. they prepare to sacrifice

themselves. i have met with them. they say to me, you know, we think we dead. every minute we live, we're living on borrowed time. >> thank you for putting a spotlight on this incredible story, and good luck. bianca jagger, thank you for joining us from nicaragua. >> thank you. because of these accusations against pro-government armed groups, we have repeated reached out to the nicaraguan government to respond to the allegations but they haven't gotten back to us. that's it for our program tonight. thank you for watching "amanpour on pbs." join us again tomorrow night.

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katty: you're watching "beyond 100 days" on pbs. not so dead after all. the russian journalist reportedly murdered yesterday appears very much alive today. arkady babchenko turns up in a press conference in key expensive the ukraine said it foiled a russian plot to kill him. north korea's spy chief touches down in new york city any minute now. he meets mike pompeo to discuss the nuclear summit. the american comedian roseanne barr blamed sleeping pills for the racest tweet which led to her show being canceled. and ronald reagan's visit to moscow which changed the course of history. 30 years later. we'll look back at that message. do get in touch with us.