A man who identified himself as Pablo Gonzalez (second from left, with a beard)
Polish prosecutors have charged Russian citizen Pavel Rubtsov in absentia with espionage. He had been posing as Spanish journalist Pablo Gonzalez for many years and who returned to his homeland in early August as a result of a prisoner exchange between Russia and several Western countries, Radio Liberty reports.
In February 2022, Rubtsov was detained in the Polish city of Przemysl. The country's intelligence services established that for six years he had been passing information to Russian intelligence that “could cause damage” to the state. Before the exchange, he was under arrest in a detention center, the investigation was not officially completed and Rubtsov's case did not go to court.
In Russia, Rubtsov was also known as a journalist. It is now known that he managed to infiltrate the entourage of the leaders of the Russian opposition and pass information about their activities and plans to the GRU. In particular, before his exposure, he collaborated with the Boris Nemtsov Foundation.
On August 1, Western countries and Russia conducted a large-scale prisoner exchange. As part of the exchange, Russia released oppositionists Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., Ilya Yashin, Andrei Pivovarov, Vadim Ostanin, Ksenia Fadeeva, Liliya Chanysheva, human rights activist Oleg Orlov, Radio Liberty and WSJ journalists Alsa Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich, artist Alexandra Skochilenko, former US Marine Paul Whelan, German citizens Patrick Schebel, Hermann Moyzhes, Dieter (Demuri) Voronin and Kevin Leek. Also released was German citizen Rico Krieger, who had previously been sentenced to death by a court in Belarus on charges of committing terrorist acts and working for Ukraine.
Western authorities have released several Russian citizens accused of crimes (mostly related to espionage) committed in Europe and the United States. Among them is FSB officer Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of a former Chechen field commander in Berlin.
Prepared by: Sergey Daga