A person recognized as Pablo González, second from left with shaved head, listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin, chatting with launched Russian prisoners upon their arrival on the Vnukovo authorities airport exterior Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024.
Gavriil Grigorov/Pool AP
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Gavriil Grigorov/Pool AP
WARSAW, Poland — When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, reporters from world wide rushed to the Polish-Ukrainian border to cowl an exodus of refugees fleeing Russian bombs.
Amongst them was Pablo González, a contract journalist from Spain who had been based mostly in Poland since 2019, working for Spanish information company EFE, Voice of America and different shops. Warsaw-based reporters knew him as an outgoing colleague who favored to drink beer and sing karaoke into the wee hours of the morning.
Two and a half years later, he was despatched to Moscow as a part of a prisoner swap, forsaking each mysteries about who he actually was and considerations about how Poland dealt with a case by which he was accused of being a Russian agent.
Within the first days of the struggle, González supplied stand-up reviews to TV viewers in Spain in opposition to a backdrop of refugees arriving on the practice station within the Polish border city of Przemysl.
However lower than week into the struggle, Polish safety brokers entered the room he was staying in and arrested him. They accused him of “participating in foreign intelligence activities against Poland” and mentioned he was an agent of the GRU, Russian army intelligence.
Buddies had been astonished — and, as Poland held González with out trial for months that was years, some grew skeptical and arranged protests in Spain demanding his launch. Authorities have by no means detailed the accusations.
However on Thursday night, the burly 42-year-old with a shaved head and beard was welcomed residence by President Vladimir Putin after being freed within the largest prisoner swap because the Soviet period.
His inclusion within the deal seems to verify suspicions that González was a Russian operative utilizing his cowl as a journalist.
Born Pavel Rubtsov in 1982 in then-Soviet Moscow, González went to Spain along with his Spanish mom at age 9, the place he turned a citizen and obtained the Spanish title of Pablo González Yagüe. He went into journalism, working for shops Público, La Sexta and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper.
It isn’t clear what led Poland to arrest him. The investigation stays categorised and the spokesman for the key providers instructed The Related Press that he couldn’t say something past what was in a quick assertion. Poland is on excessive alert after a string of arrests of espionage suspects and sabotage, a part of what the authorities view as hybrid warfare by Russia and Belarus in opposition to the West.
Polish safety providers mentioned Poland included him within the deal because of the shut Polish-American alliance and “common security interests.” Of their assertion, they mentioned that “Pavel Rubtsov, a GRU officer arrested in Poland in 2022, (had been) carrying out intelligence tasks in Europe.”
The pinnacle of Britain’s MI6 company, Sir Richard Moore, mentioned on the Aspen Safety Discussion board in 2022 that González was an “illegal” who was arrested in Poland after “masquerading as a Spanish journalist.”
“He was trying to go into Ukraine to be part of their destabilizing efforts there,” Moore mentioned.
One other trace at his actions got here from unbiased Russian outlet Agentstvo, which reported that in 2016 Rubtsov befriended and spied on Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of Russian opposition chief Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered in Moscow in 2015.
Poland-based journalists who knew González mentioned he used his base in Poland to journey to former Soviet international locations together with Ukraine and Georgia. He had a license to function a drone and used it to movie Auschwitz-Birkenau from the air for protection on the seventy fifth anniversary of the demise camp’s liberation in 2020.
Voice of America, a U.S.-government funded group, confirmed that he labored briefly for them, however they’ve since eliminated any of his work from their web site.
“Pablo González contributed to a few VOA stories as a freelancer over a relatively short period of time starting in late 2020,” spokesperson Emily Webb mentioned in reply to an emailed question. “As a freelancer who provided content to a number of media outlets, his services were arranged through a third-party company used by news organizations around the world.”
“At no time did he have any access to any VOA systems or VOA credentials,” Webb mentioned. “As soon as VOA learned of the allegations, we removed his material.”
As a result of Poland’s justice system was politicized beneath a populist authorities that dominated in 2015-23, some activists anxious about whether or not his rights had been revered. Reporters With out Borders was among the many teams that known as for him to be placed on trial or launched.
The group stands by its place that he mustn’t have been held that lengthy with out trial. “You are innocent until a trial proves you guilty,” Alfonso Bauluz, the top of the group’s workplace in Spain instructed AP on Friday. He expressed frustration on the silence across the case, and the truth that there’ll apparently not be a trial in any respect, saying Poland has not offered the proof it has in opposition to him.
However the group additionally says it expects González to supply a proof now that he’s free.
Jaap Arriens, a Dutch video journalist based mostly in Warsaw, frolicked with the person he knew as Pablo in Warsaw and Kyiv, in addition to in Przemysl shortly earlier than his arrest.
Arriens described him as a pleasant, humorous man with a macho demeanor and a chest coated in tattoos that he as soon as confirmed off in a bar.
González largely slot in, however appeared better-off than the typical freelance journalist. He at all times appeared to have the most recent and most costly telephones and computer systems, working on the Poland-Ukraine border with the newest 14-inch MacBook Professional. He had loads of cash to spend in bars.
He recalled González as soon as saying: “Life is good, life is almost too good.”
“And I thought: ‘Man, freelance life is never too good. What are you talking about?’ I don’t know any freelancer who talks like this.”
González, whose grandfather emigrated from Spain to the Soviet Union as a baby throughout the Spanish Civil Warfare, was referred to as a Basque nationalist with ties to the area’s independence motion.
Russia is suspected of supporting separatist actions in Spain and elsewhere in an effort to destabilize Europe.
González’ spouse in Spain had been advocating on his behalf throughout his detention in Poland, despite the fact that they weren’t residing collectively on the time of his arrest.
Over the previous years, the suspect’s supporters ran an account on Twitter, now X, to advocate for his launch.
When he was despatched to Moscow on Thursday, the @FreePabloGonzález account tweeted: “This is our last tweet: Pablo is finally free. Endless thanks to all.”
Those that have adopted the case at the moment are awaiting González’s subsequent strikes.
He has Spanish citizenship — and the suitable to return to the European Union. His spouse was quoted in Spanish media saying she hopes he can return to Spain.
