Ben Pawlowski
LAST Thursday, Russia and the West brokered an agreement to release 24 prisoners in the biggest swap deal since the Cold War.
Among them was a 42-year-old Spanish journalist who has plied his trade for outlets including La Sexta, Público and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper.
However, instead of returning to Spain, Pablo Gonzalez was warmly welcomed to Moscow by President Vladimir Putin as he and seven others, including an FSB hitman who assassinated a Chechen rebel in Germany five years ago, landed back in the ‘motherland’.
For many, Gonzalez’s arrival confirmed a long-held suspicion – he is not a journalist, but rather a spy working on behalf of the Kremlin.
Even Sir Richard Moore, the head of MI6, labelled Gonzalez as a Putin stooge who was ‘masquerading as a Spanish journalist’ as part of Moscow’s ‘destabilising efforts’.
Gonzalez – real name Pavel Rubstov – was detained on February 28, 2022, by Polish officials as he reported on the refugee crisis on the border with Ukraine, provoked by Putin’s illegal invasion.
He was held at a prison nicknamed as ‘Poland’s Guantanamo’ accused of espionage before his release last week.
Gonzalez’s grandfather moved from Spain to the former Soviet Union as a child during the Spanish Civil War – Gonzalez himself was born in Moscow in 1982 before returning to Spain with his mother aged 9.
He became a Spanish citizen, receiving the Spanish name of Pablo Gonzalez Yague, allowing him to hold two passports, one Russian and one Spanish.
When he grew up, Gonzalez entered journalism, working for a range of publications across Spain.
The freelance journalist had been based in Poland since 2019 where he submitted copy for outlets including the Spanish news agency EFE and became the face of the crisis as he provided TV reports from the region.
However, he provoked suspicion among colleagues as he always appeared to be equipped with the latest laptop or phone, and wasn’t afraid to splash the cash in local bars.
Polish officials have remained tight-lipped about the evidence that led to his arrest, although his warm welcome by Moscow appears to confirm suspicions that he worked as an operative on behalf of Putin’s regime.
The Polish security services accused him of ‘participating in foreign intelligence activities against Poland’ and being an agent of the GRU, the infamous Russian military intelligence arm known for attacks including the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury, England.
Agentstvo, an independent Russian outlet, reported that in 2016 Gonzalez befriended and spied on Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of the murdered Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
Others have speculated that Gonzalez was sent to work for Basque nationalist newspapers in an attempt by Moscow to re-ignite the region’s separatist movement and destabilise the stability of the Spanish government.
Gonzalez still holds Spanish citizenship – his wife, who has lobbied for his freedom whilst he was held behind bars, has openly stated her hope that he can return to Spain.
