Warsaw, Poland — When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, journalists from around the world rushed to the Polish-Ukrainian border to cover an exodus of refugees fleeing Russian bombs.
Among them was Pablo González, a freelance journalist from Spain who had lived in Poland since 2019 and worked for the Spanish news agency EFE, Voz de América and other media. Warsaw journalists knew him as an outgoing colleague who liked to drink beer and sing karaoke until the early hours of the morning.
Two and a half years later, he was sent to Moscow as part of a prisoner exchange, leaving behind both mysteries about who he really was and concerns about how Poland handled a case in which he was accused of being a Russian agent.
In the early days of the war, González delivered monologues to viewers in Spain against the backdrop of refugees arriving at the train station in the Polish border town of Przemysl.
But less than a week into the war, Polish security officers entered the room where he was staying and arrested him. They accused him of “engaging in foreign intelligence activities against Poland” and said he was an agent of the GRU, Russian military intelligence.
Friends were astonished, and as Poland held González without trial for months that turned into years, some became skeptical and organized protests in Spain demanding his release. Authorities have never detailed the allegations.
But on Thursday night, the burly 42-year-old, with a shaved head and beard, was welcomed home by President Vladimir Putin after being freed in the largest prisoner exchange since the Soviet era.
His inclusion in the deal appears to confirm suspicions that González was a Russian agent using his cover as a journalist.
Born Pavel Rubtsov in 1982 in then-Soviet Moscow, González went to Spain with his Spanish mother at age 9, where he became naturalized and received the Spanish name Pablo González Yagüe. He dedicated himself to journalism and worked for the media Público, La Sexta and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper.
It is unclear what led Poland to arrest him. The investigation remains classified and the 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 after a series of arrests of espionage and sabotage suspects, part of what authorities consider a hybrid war by Russia and Belarus against the West.
Polish security services said Poland included it in the deal because of the close Polish-US alliance and “common security interests.” In their statement, they said that “Pavel Rubtsov, a GRU officer arrested in Poland in 2022, (had been) carrying out intelligence tasks in Europe.”
The head of the British agency MI6, Sir Richard Moore, said at the Aspen Security Forum in 2022 that González was an “illegal” who was detained in Poland after “posing as a Spanish journalist.”
“I was trying to go to Ukraine to be part of their destabilizing efforts there,” Moore said.
Another hint of his activities came from independent Russian outlet Agentstvo, which reported that in 2016 Rubtsov befriended Rubtsov and spied on him. Zhanna Nemtsovadaughter of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsovmurdered in Moscow in 2015.
Poland-based journalists who knew González said he used his base in Poland to travel to former Soviet Union countries, including Ukraine and Georgia. He had a license to operate a drone and used it to film Auschwitz-Birkenau from the air to cover the issue. 75th anniversary of the liberation of the extermination camp in 2020.
Voice of America, an organization funded by the US government, confirmed that he briefly worked for them, but they have since removed all of his work from their website.
“Pablo González contributed to some VOA stories as a freelancer for a relatively short period of time beginning in late 2020,” spokesperson Emily Webb said in response to an emailed inquiry. “As a freelancer who provided content to various media outlets, his services were contracted through a third-party company used by news organizations around the world.”
“At no time did he have access to any VOA system or credentials,” Webb said. “As soon as VOA learned of the allegations, we removed their material.”
Because Poland’s justice system was politicized under a populist government that ruled from 2015 to 2023, some activists were concerned about whether their rights were being respected. Reporters Without Borders was one of the groups that called for him to be tried or released.
The group maintains its position that he should not have been held so long without trial. “You are innocent until a trial proves you guilty,” Alfonso Bauluz, head of the group’s office in Spain, told the AP on Friday. He expressed frustration at the silence surrounding the case and the fact that there appears to be no trial, and said Poland has not presented the evidence it has against him.
But the group also says it hopes Gonzalez will provide an explanation now that he is free.
Jaap Arriens, a Dutch video journalist based in Warsaw, was with the man he knew as Pablo in Warsaw and kyiv, as well as in Przemysl, shortly before his arrest.
Arriens described him as a friendly, fun man, with a macho demeanor and a chest covered in tattoos that he once showed in a bar.
González mostly fit in, but seemed to be better off than the average freelance journalist. He always seemed to have the newest, most expensive phones and computers, and he worked on the Polish-Ukrainian border with the latest 14-inch MacBook Pro. He had a lot of money to spend in bars.
He recalled that González once said: “Life is good, life is almost too good.”
“And I thought, ‘Man, freelancing life is never too good. What are you talking about?’ “I don’t know any self-employed person who talks like that.”
González, whose grandfather emigrated from Spain to the Soviet Union as a child during the Spanish Civil War, was known as a Basque nationalist with ties to the region’s independence movement.
Russia is suspected of supporting separatist movements in Spain and elsewhere in an effort to destabilize Europe.
González’s wife in Spain had been defending him during his detention in Poland, even though they were not living together at the time of his arrest.
In recent years, supporters of the suspect opened a Twitter account, 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 all.”
Those who have followed 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 that she hopes he can return to Spain.
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