Don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone deserves being killed for his words. But, just to know what kind of person Babchenko was, you should know about the things he posted. He expressed gladness about the plane crash near Sochi in December 2016, he mocked the victims of the subway bombing in Saint Petersburg (April 2017), the plane crash near Moscow in this February, and more.
How would you feel about a person who reacted to the Brussels bombings in a way like "they deserved it, because they voted for the current government, too bad there weren't more victims"? Probably as of a sick and disgusting person.
The guy liked dancing on the bones of other people... but it's not a reason for us to be like him. However, I'm not sad about the death of this '
critic of the Kremlin' (BBC) either.
What about Oles Buzina, a Ukrainian journalist who spoke against another regime (the one in his own country) and was shot dead near his home in Kiev? Or a number of other Kiev opposers killed in the country? Or Kirill Vyshinskiy, who's been recently arrested for 'treason' (which was working for a Russian news agency)? They're not worth your attention, are they?
Ironically - Sheremet, Voronenkov, Skripal, and now Babchenko - they ran away from bloody Putin's regime to a safe place. But 'Kremlin's long tentacles' still got them. Meanwhile, the loudest Kremlin critics - Navalny, Sobchak, Volkov, Varlamov, Sotnik (who keeps posting about Putin personally threatening to kill him for years) and many-many others - are in Russia, alive and well.
Babchenko didn't fear for his life in Kiev - shortly after moving to Ukraine, he said he feels 'safe'.
The Ukrainian officials accused Moscow of the murder sooner than Arkadiy's body cooled down. Well, I'd be surprised if it was otherwise.
The RF prosecutes him for tax evasion... but of course it's politically motivated.