WARSAW, Poland – When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, journalists from around the world rushed to the Polish-Ukrainian border to cover the exodus of refugees fleeing Russian bombs.
Among them is Pablo González, a freelance journalist from Spain who has been living in Poland since 2019, working for the Spanish news agency EFE, Voice of America and other outlets. The Warsaw-based journalist knew him as a colleague who liked to drink beer and sing karaoke in the morning.
Two and a half years later, he was sent to Moscow as part of a prisoner exchange, leaving behind both the mystery of who he really is and concerns about how Poland is handling the case of alleged Russian agents.
In the first days of the war, González presented a stand-up report to TV audiences in Spain against the backdrop of refugees arriving at a train station in the Polish border town of Przemysl.
But less than a week into the war, Polish security agents broke into his room and arrested him. They accused him of “engaging in foreign intelligence activities against Poland” and said he was an agent of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence.
Friends were amazed – and, as Poland held González without trial for months to years, some became skeptical and organized protests in Spain calling for his release. Authorities have not elaborated on the allegations.
But on Thursday evening, a 42-year-old girl with shaved hair and a beard was welcomed home by President Vladimir Putin after being released in the biggest prisoner swap since the Soviet era.
Included in the deal appeared to confirm suspicions that González was a Russian operative using his cover as a journalist.
Born Pavel Rubtsov in 1982 in Soviet Moscow, González went to Spain with his Spanish mother at age 9, where he became a citizen and adopted the Spanish name Pablo González Yagüe. He entered journalism, working for the outlets Público, La Sexta and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper.
It is unclear what prompted Poland to arrest him. The investigation remains classified and a secret service spokesman told The Associated Press that he could not say anything beyond what was contained in a brief statement. Poland is on high alert following a string of arrests of espionage and sabotage suspects, part of what authorities see as a hybrid war by Russia and Belarus against the West.
Polish security services said Poland included them in the deal because of the close Polish-American alliance and “common security interests.” In the statement, he said that “Pavel Rubtsov, a GRU officer detained in Poland in 2022, (has) carried out intelligence work in Europe.”
The head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency MI6, Sir Richard Moore, said at the Aspen Security Forum in 2022 that González was an “illegal” who was arrested in Poland after “impersonating a Spanish journalist.”
“They’re trying to get into Ukraine to be part of the destabilization effort there,” Moore said.
Another clue to his activities comes from the independent Russian outlet Agentstvo, which reported that in 2016 Rubtsov befriended and spied on Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in Moscow in 2015.
Poland-based journalists who knew González said he used his base in Poland to travel to former Soviet countries including Ukraine and Georgia. He has a license to operate a drone and used it to film Auschwitz-Birkenau from the air for coverage of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp in 2020.
Voice of America, an organization funded by the US government, confirmed that he had briefly worked for her, but has since removed her work from their website.
“Pablo González contributed several VOA stories as a freelancer for a short time starting in late 2020,” spokeswoman Emily Webb said in response to an emailed inquiry. “As a freelancer who provides content to several media outlets, his services are managed through third-party companies used by news organizations around the world.”
“At no time did he have access to VOA systems or VOA credentials,” Webb said. “As soon as VOA became aware of the allegations, we removed the material.”
As Poland’s justice system was politicized under the populist government that ruled in 2015-23, some activists are worried about whether their rights are being respected. Reporters Without Borders is one of the groups calling for his trial or release.
The group is of the opinion that they should not be held for long periods of time without trial. “You are not guilty until a court proves you guilty,” Alfonso Bauluz, head of the group’s office in Spain told the AP on Friday. He expressed his frustration at the silence around the case, and the fact that there seemed to be no trial at all, saying that Poland had not presented evidence to him.
But the group also said it expects González to provide an explanation now that he is free.
Jaap Arriens, a Dutch video journalist living in Warsaw, hung out with the man known as Pablo in Warsaw and Kyiv, as well as in Przemysl before his arrest.
Arriens described him as a friendly and funny man with a macho attitude and a chest covered in tattoos that he once displayed in bars.
González is usually fit, but looks better than the average freelance journalist. He always has the latest and most expensive phones and computers, working on the Polish-Ukrainian border with the latest 14-inch MacBook Pro. He has a lot of money to spend at the bar.
He remembers González saying: “Life is good, life is almost too good.”
“And I thought: ‘Man, the freelance life is never too late. What are you talking about?’ I don’t know freelancers who talk like this.”
González, whose grandfather emigrated from Spain to the Soviet Union as a child during the Spanish Civil War, is known as a Basque nationalist associated with the region’s independence movement.
Russia is suspected of supporting separatist movements in Spain and elsewhere in an attempt to destabilize Europe.
González’s wife in Spain has been advocating for him during his detention in Poland, although they did not live together when he was detained.
Over the past year, supporters of the suspect opened an account on Twitter, now X, to advocate for his release.
When he was sent to Moscow on Thursday, the @FreePabloGonzález account tweeted: “This is our last tweet: Pablo is finally free. Infinite thanks to everything.”
Those who have been following the case are now waiting for González’s next steps.
He has Spanish citizenship – and the right to return to the European Union. His wife was quoted in Spanish media as saying she hoped to return to Spain.