Spanish journalist or Russian spy? The thriller round Pablo González : NPR

A person recognized as Pablo González, second from left with shaved head, listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin, talking to launched Russian prisoners upon their arrival on the Vnukovo authorities airport outdoors 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 primarily based 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, abandoning each mysteries about who he actually was and issues about how Poland dealt with a case during which he was accused of being a Russian agent.

Within the first days of the conflict, González supplied stand-up experiences to TV viewers in Spain towards a backdrop of refugees arriving on the practice station within the Polish border city of Przemysl.

However lower than week into the conflict, Polish safety brokers entered the room he was staying in and arrested him. They accused him of “collaborating in overseas intelligence actions towards Poland” and stated he was an agent of the GRU, Russian army intelligence.

Associates had been astonished — and, as Poland held González with out trial for months that changed into 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 house by President Vladimir Putin after being freed within the largest prisoner swap for the reason that Soviet period.

His inclusion within the deal seems to substantiate 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 grew to become a citizen and acquired the Spanish title of Pablo González Yagüe. He went into journalism, working for shops Público, La Sexta and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper.

It is not clear what led Poland to arrest him. The investigation stays labeled and the spokesman for the key companies advised The Related Press that he couldn’t say something past what was in a short 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 towards the West.

Polish safety companies stated Poland included him within the deal because of the shut Polish-American alliance and “widespread safety pursuits.” Of their assertion, they stated that “Pavel Rubtsov, a GRU officer arrested in Poland in 2022, (had been) finishing up intelligence duties in Europe.”

The pinnacle of Britain’s overseas intelligence company MI6, Sir Richard Moore, stated on the Aspen Safety Discussion board in 2022 that González was an “unlawful” who was arrested in Poland after “masquerading as a Spanish journalist.”

“He was attempting to enter Ukraine to be a part of their destabilizing efforts there,” Moore stated.

One other trace at his actions got here from impartial 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 stated he used his base in Poland to journey to former Soviet nations 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 loss of life 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 some VOA tales as a freelancer over a comparatively quick time frame beginning in late 2020,” spokesperson Emily Webb stated in reply to an emailed question. “As a freelancer who supplied content material to quite a lot of media shops, his companies had been organized by a third-party firm utilized by information organizations world wide.”

“At no time did he have any entry to any VOA techniques or VOA credentials,” Webb stated. “As quickly as VOA discovered of the allegations, we eliminated his materials.”

As a result of Poland’s justice system was politicized below 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 shouldn’t have been held that lengthy with out trial. “You’re harmless till a trial proves you responsible,” Alfonso Bauluz, the pinnacle of the group’s workplace in Spain advised 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 introduced the proof it has towards him.

However the group additionally says it expects González to offer an evidence now that he’s free.

Jaap Arriens, a Dutch video journalist primarily based 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 principally 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 sweet, life is sort of too good.”

“And I believed: ‘Man, freelance life isn’t too good. What are you speaking about?’ I do not know any freelancer who talks like this.”

González, whose grandfather emigrated from Spain to the Soviet Union as a toddler in the course of the Spanish Civil Warfare, was generally known 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 dwelling 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: “That is our final tweet: Pablo is lastly free. Infinite because of all.”

Those that have adopted the case at the moment are awaiting González’s subsequent strikes.

He has Spanish citizenship — and the appropriate to return to the European Union. His spouse was quoted in Spanish media saying she hopes he can return to Spain.