"I am about to put my toddler boys to bed when I get the phone message that makes my heart sink and throws me into deja-vu. 'Please let him live, please let him live,' flashes through my mind," writes Kiev bureau chief Anya Tsukanova of the moment she received the news of the "murder" of Russian journalist and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko.

Less than 24 hours later the killing was revealed to have been a hoax by Ukrainian security services that they said was necessary to foil a real plot to kill the journalist.